Ordinary Devotion

"Kristen Holt-Browning's luminous debut novel invites us to ponder the liminal spaces between one world, one time and another, the vastness within what seems small, like the hazelnut in anchoress Julian of Norwich's vision. The modern and medieval stories spiral in and out of each other, intricate and vivid as the letters of illuminated manuscripts, connected by the mysteries of paradox: confinement and freedom, loss and fulfillment. No reader will remain unmoved by Elinor's extraordinary devotion both to Adela, with her secret compassion for women, and to the green, sensual living world beyond the cell." -Elizabeth Cunningham, My Life as a Prayer and The Maeve Chronicles

"Holt-Browning's writing is so vivid that during the passages that take place in the enclosed cell in which Adela and Elinor are indefinitely confined, I could feel my breath quickening as I imagined the dark, cold space, felt the palpable loneliness of a child recently separated from her family and the rural landscape she understands and loves. Holt-Browning is adept at honing in on the passion for life, for nature, for language that can sustain a person through the hardest times." -Nerissa Nields, Plastic Angel, and All Together Singing in the Kitchen.

"Holt-Browning writes with sensitive insight of the place of women in academia and deftly leaps centuries with her graceful prose. Through Liz, her contemporary scholar, and Elinor, her young helper to a medieval anchoress, she explores timeless feminist questions with patience and grace. A must read!" -Julie Chibbaro, Into the Dangerous World and Deadly