Salvation: Scenes from the Life of St. Francis - Hardcover

Salvation by novelist Valerie Martin imagines the life of St. Francis of Assisi in the form of short, vivid scenes. She begins at the end, with his death in 1226, and then moves backward in time, ending with his youth and conversion. Martin has mined all of the early hagiographies of St. Francis in order to fill her book with sharp details ("his eyebrows met above the bridge of his nose"). She has carefully corrected some popular misconceptions about her subject: "He was not so much a nature lover (he was certainly neither an environmentalist nor a vegetarian) as a man who saw no distinction between himself in the natural world." And although she is not particularly religious, she clearly describes the spiritual significance of poverty. Salvation is not a defense of St. Francis or an argument about his significance in the contemporary world, but many readers will interpret its stories in a way that fulfills both. Many contemporary Christians are hungry for precisely this kind of story, about a person whose faith was so deep and dedication so strong that he sacrificed everything--even most Christian doctrine--in order to become like his Lord. --Michael Joseph Gross

"Valerie Martin's biography of St. Francis begins at the end of the saint's life, as his ravaged body is carried in secret from Siena to Assisi. . . . The scene's focus on politics and intrigue, its frank detail and its eloquent, restrained prose provide an apt introduction to this interesting book. Martin isn't interested in providing another hagiography of a much-written-about saint. Her focus lingers instead on what he made happen, and on the lives affected by a baffling, unpredictable man. . . [Martin's] strange, introspective Francesco is very different from the familiar St. Francis who preaches to birds and effortlessly wins converts. [Her] depiction of Francis through the eyes of his followers is her greatest achievement. Relating their devotion as well as their confusion, she paints a subtle and contradictory portrait of a holy personality -- baffling and frustrating, sometimes offensive, but also radiant."
-Erin McGraw, San Francisco Chronicle Book Review

"Stimulating. . . . Although it is classified as biography, Salvation is constructed and reads like a novel. Medieval history it may be, but this is very closely observed stuff . . . Martin gradually backtracks through one episode after another--the phenomenon of Francis' stigmata, his adventures on the fifth crusade, his relationship with St. Clare and his growing band of followers, his hedonism as a youth, the moment when he overcomes his revulsion at being near lepers and recognizes his vocation. Martin chose this device because she decided the chronological approach was not the way people looked at things in the Middle Ages, and because she wished to create suspense, starting with what everybody knows, and working toward the much less familiar. In a sense, it is a progression from darkness to light, which is a very spiritual approach, and it is brilliantly done." -Geoffrey Moorhouse, New York Times Book Review

"Literate, sympathetic vignettes from the life of St. Francis of Assisi...Novelist Martin puts her storytelling skills to good use in this impressionistic, respectful appreciation of Sr. Francis's life. Many of the scenes are so well realized that they resemble tableaux vivantes: Francesco di Pietro Bernadone's repudiation of his family wealth for a life of poverty, his mysterious acquisition of stigmata after weathering a mountaintop storm, his conversations with crusading knights and dangerous beasts, his painful death–all these spring to life from the page. Drawing on a wealth of documentary evidence, the author takes pains to emphasize that 'though San Francesco was a great mystic, he was also entirely of this world,' with all the attendant urges and frailties. Martin['s] nuanced, thoughtful portrait of the medieval Italian reformer, so torn between manhood and sainthood, will be of great appeal to many."
–Kirkus (starred review)

"In painting these central scenes from the life of one of the most extraordinary saints ever to have lived, Valerie Martin has succeeded in rendering holiness visible, tangible, and something worth hungering for. Salvation is at once Giottoesque and Gothic, terrifying and consoling. Here is Francis stripped to his essentials, a frail human being with a will of iron, freeing himself of everything in order to fix his full attention on the voice in the whirlwind, and receiving in turn the lovescape that transformed him and the world forever. Be careful. This is one of those rare books with the grace and power to change your life."
—Paul Mariani, author of The Broken Tower: The Life of Hart Crane

"Valerie Martin has the artistry to render a great life in a series of perfect miniatures. Viewed in light of the religious and social turmoil of his day, San Francesco's joyful intransigence seems at once heroic and deeply human."
–Cathleen Medwick, author of Teresa of Avila: The Progress of a Soul

"An unusual look at the life and times of St. Francis...[and] a contemporary homage to the anonymous 14th Century collection of tales of St. Francis and his followers known as "The Little Flowers of St. Francis." . . . Martin has a great touch for vivid detail, for landscape settings, for qualities of light and times of day. Her scene of the saint's hallucinatory encounter with demons has terrific immediacy, clarity and humor. Her evocation of the hollow silence that swallows a band of crusaders as they enter a besieged city whose inhabitants have been murdered by the plague is ghostly and chilling. If Martin's handling of her subject matter were a style of art, it would be International Gothic, decorative, her outdoor scenes bejeweled with sparkling dew. An aesthetic St. Francis is one who commands our attention, who draws us irresistibly toward a still point of wonder and self-reflection." - Thomas Simpson, Chicago Tribune

"A compelling tale of sacrifice, the spiritual experience of true poverty, the founding of the Franciscans and petty infighting among the brothers. Most importantly, it is the story of a faith that is deep, dedicated and all-encompassing, informing the life of this saintly man."
-Valerie Ryan, The Oregonian