A Good Read

The Cleaner of Chartres by Salley Vickers

Absence is at the heart of Agnes Morel’s life. Absence of a mother and father, absence of love, guidance and protection, and the most heartbreaking of all the absence of her illegitimate baby boy, taken from her soon after birth. Her story is beautifully written in fragments of the lives of the people she comes into contact with.

  
Beautiful and elusive Agnes was a foundling, discovered by a farmer, she was wrapped in a white tablecloth and placed in a straw shopping basket. 

In the present Agnes cleans in the Cathedral. Whilst happy in her own company others are drawn to her, wanting to talk to her, she touches the lives of pilgrims, tourists, artists, shopkeepers, priests and nuns. She is offered cleaning jobs outside the cathedral and finds it difficult to refuse new work or to demand proper payment.
Her vulnerability is the target for other people's unpleasantness and before long an accidental encounter dredges up tragic incidents from her past and nasty gossips are all too eager to spread their idle rumours. The most objectionable of these is one of her employers, the bitter, spiteful Madame Beck, an obsessive collector of china dolls. Equally vitriolic is Mother Veronique who displays the worst aspects of religious zeal - cruelty and sanctimonious hypocrisy. Screaming at the then helpless 14 year old Agnes who had been horribly raped and was now pregnant “You cunning little whore”. 
Eventually Agnès is forced to confront her history, and the mystery of her origins finally unfolds.

This is a gentle, compelling story of darkness and light; of traumatic loss, love and hope. A beautiful read.

~Happy Reading ~

Polly x