Lambs of God is a compelling tale of paradise lost,
and ultimately regained. Three nuns, Iphigenia, Margarita and
Carla live in primitive isolation on a wild and remote island.
Uncivilised and de-socialised, they are the last survivors of
a dying religious order who have interwoven the traditions of
Catholicism into their primal and organic existence. The liturgies,
chants and sacraments of the Holy Church of Rome are overlaid
with the ceremonies and myths of the nuns’ own self-evolved paganism.
Their lives are cyclical and contained, devoted to the tending
of their flock of sheep and to the observance of their own and
the Church’s sacred rituals.
Their peace is interrupted by the arrival of a young and ambitious
priest who has been sent on a diocesan mission to evaluate their
monastery as a potential development site. When the three nuns
sense that their existence is in jeopardy the primal instinct
of self-preservation takes over and the novel evolves into a dark
Oresteian struggle between civilised, rational masculinity and
more primitive feminine forces. The priest comes from ‘The World’,
a place where mobile phones and expensive cars are as much a symbol
of the Church’s power as the gold and lapis lazuli icons of the
past. The nuns have never used a telephone or driven a car. Sister
Carla has never before met a man. They are elderly innocents,
their faith driven by the spirit of the early Christian martyrs
and the transcendental masochism of Christ’s Passion. For all
their naivety, however, the nuns are far from stupid. The unlucky
Father Ignatius soon finds that his arrogance and worldly connections
are a poor defence against the native cunning and unshakeable
faith of these most unlikely adversaries.
Marele Day’s prose is rich and imaginative as she weaves together
the mythologies of fairy tales and ancient civilisations to create
a vision of a strange and powerful system of beliefs. Her narrative
is fast-paced and often humourous but is underpinned by layers
of potent symbolism and allusion. This is undoubtedly a ‘literary’
novel, the first by a previously established writer of genre fiction
and Marele Day makes the crossover unselfconsciously and without
pretension. Lambs of God is a strikingly contemporary
novel, and at the same time an exploration of immortal literary
themes and timeless spiritual struggles. It is original without
seeming to strive for novelty and it makes brilliant use of literary
device without conscious erudition or obscurity.
The success of this novel lies in Day’s manipulation of a stunningly
original and unique situation into a powerful and accessible human
drama. There is a brilliant sensitivity at work in the creation
of these bizarre heroines, which is well matched by her incisive
commentary on the state of the twentieth century church. Day quite
literally works wonders with an unpromising cast list of three
old nuns, a priest and a flock of sheep. Outside the realms of
the most depraved pornography, this would seem to be a situation
with very limited potential. In Day’s hands, however, their drama
is as fascinating and compelling as any more widely or glamorously
populated work of fiction. Lambs of God really is
worth reading . It is the kind of novel that you will lend to
a friend and then never see again as it gets passed on, over and
over. Marele Day is a truly welcome addition to the overcrowded
world of literary fiction and her next offering will be keenly
awaited.
Reviewed by Polly Rance
