The Novice of Holloway Hall
A novel
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The Novice of Holloway Hall
Narrated by:
Jacquelyn French
Buy for $24.30
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Narrated by:
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Jacquelyn French
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By:
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Wayne Johnston
At twenty-eight, Vivvy Holloway is nearly the same height as when she was five. Though she hides her face behind a veil, a different colour and fabric for each day of the week, she brandishes an acerbic wit that far outweighs her small stature. Having just spent eight years of the 1930s in a convent failing to become a nun, Vivvy is now returning to Holloway Hall, the largest private dwelling in Newfoundland and the crumbling seat of her formidable family.
Vivvy’s sister Freda, a doctor, now rules the estate and its fortune. She is also its sole occupant, save for the five-year-old “special member of the family” known as Ivan, who came home with Freda after her failed marriage in the Congo, where she and her husband were missionaries until tragedy struck. Tasked with caring for the boy while Freda works long shifts—and displays increasingly erratic behaviour—Vivvy begins to suspect that something is dangerously amiss in Holloway Hall.
Over the course of a single turbulent week, Vivvy faces off against her domineering sister, her ten cleric brothers, and a host of meddling hangers-on, unearthing long-buried secrets that threaten not only her and Ivan’s place in the family, but the fate of the entire Holloway name.
Critic reviews
PRAISE FOR WAYNE JOHNSTON
“If St. John’s looms large in the Canadian literary psyche, this is due in no small measure to the novels of Wayne Johnston, a native of Newfoundland’s capital city and one of its most diligent chroniclers.” —Quill & Quire
“[Johnston is] a literary giant who has god-given talent.” —Will Ferguson, The Globe and Mail
“Wayne Johnston spins wonderful stories; he is a gather-you-round-and-I-will-enchant-you raconteur. . . . [His] fiction is subtle, his passion understated, his humour underpinned by tragedy. All of his work, superbly written, is a powerful combination of insight, talent and revelation. It is made to endure.” —Writers’ Trust Engel/Findley Award jury citation (David Bergen, Joan Clark and Miriam Toews)
"Wayne Johnston is a brilliant and accomplished writer and his Newfoundland boots and boats, rough politics and rough country, history and journalism is vivid and sharp." —Annie Proulx
"Unlike most recent bestselling novels that are remembered for the plane flight and then promptly forgotten, Wayne's stories have characters who move in and take up permanent residence." —Mary Walsh
"His books are beautifully written, among the funniest I've ever read, yet somehow at the same time among the most poignant and moving." —Annie Dillard
“If St. John’s looms large in the Canadian literary psyche, this is due in no small measure to the novels of Wayne Johnston, a native of Newfoundland’s capital city and one of its most diligent chroniclers.” —Quill & Quire
“[Johnston is] a literary giant who has god-given talent.” —Will Ferguson, The Globe and Mail
“Wayne Johnston spins wonderful stories; he is a gather-you-round-and-I-will-enchant-you raconteur. . . . [His] fiction is subtle, his passion understated, his humour underpinned by tragedy. All of his work, superbly written, is a powerful combination of insight, talent and revelation. It is made to endure.” —Writers’ Trust Engel/Findley Award jury citation (David Bergen, Joan Clark and Miriam Toews)
"Wayne Johnston is a brilliant and accomplished writer and his Newfoundland boots and boats, rough politics and rough country, history and journalism is vivid and sharp." —Annie Proulx
"Unlike most recent bestselling novels that are remembered for the plane flight and then promptly forgotten, Wayne's stories have characters who move in and take up permanent residence." —Mary Walsh
"His books are beautifully written, among the funniest I've ever read, yet somehow at the same time among the most poignant and moving." —Annie Dillard
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