Treasure of Sainte Foy

Like Graham Greene and Mary McCarthy before him MacDonald Harris has written a thriller. And like them he brings to his story the alchemical talent of a first-class novelist: The Treasure of Sainte Foy is not only gripping but also transcendent.. In the picturesque isolated French village of Conques stands the Abbey of Sainte Foy. The church houses a priceless medieval treasure whose centerpiece is a magnificent three-foot-high statue of the holy martyr Sainte Foy bejeweled and covered with gold its strange alabaster eyes gazing ahead as if at a nearby invisible world. To a small group of political terrorists in Toulouse the treasure is an irresistible target. Working with them is Patrick a disaffected American art historian who recruits into the band Marie-Ange the guide to the church. We see their methodical preparations for the robbery the growing attraction between Patrick and Marie-Ange the implacable pursuit of the police—all cool dramatic and passionate as a Bogart film. But we also sense the mysterious underworld of the Languedoc a region of heretics and saints criminals and martyrs; the stakes of the novel subtly change and ramify; we are caught up in a gorgeous and mystical endgame as the forces of retribution close in; we get the uncanny feeling that at play in the novel are forces unseen and unseeable. What is really at play of course is the masterful hand of MacDonald Harris. A native Californian Harris is best known for The Balloonist nominated for the National Book Award and translated into half a dozen language and Pandoras Galley his mesmerizing tale of the last days of the Venetian Republic. In The Treasure of Sainte Foy Harris has written a novel that is spellbinding in every sense of the world.