Behind the Stained-glass Window
by Patzi Raven
Category: Fiction

At St Philomena Academy convent school, Aurora finds more that just religious mystery to explore. The arbitrary cruelty the nuns inflict upon the pupils and the shameful secrets that like dormant in the academy provoke Aurora and her close-knit group of friends to ingenious feats of cunning and guile. In Behind the Stained-Glass Window, Patzi Raven allows the reader to witness the workings of a world where the oppression of children is institutionalized and the rites of growing up are soiled by guilt. In prose that weaves the past and present into an almost Proustian translucence, Raven takes on the urgent themes of adolescent piety, sexual awakening and the intensity of female friendship. Against the austere backdrop of the convent, a charming and touching tale emerges of the persistence of the sense of justice and the value of friendship through time.