"Pope Joan has all the elements one wants in a historical drama-love sex violence duplicity
and long-buried secrets. Cross has written an engaging book."-Los Angeles Times Book Review In
this international bestseller and basis for the 2009 movie of the same name Donna Woolfolk
Cross brings the Dark Ages to life in all their brutal splendor and shares the dramatic story
of a woman whose strength of vision led her to defy the social restrictions of her day. For a
thousand years her existence has been denied. She is the legend that will not die-Pope Joan
the ninth-century woman who disguised herself as a man and rose to become the only female ever
to sit on the throne of St. Peter. Now in this riveting novel Cross paints a sweeping portrait
of an unforgettable heroine who struggles against restrictions her soul cannot accept.
Brilliant and talented young Joan rebels against medieval social strictures forbidding women
to learn. When her brother is brutally killed during a Viking attack Joan takes up his
cloak-and his identity-and enters the monastery of Fulda. As Brother John Anglicus Joan
distinguishes herself as a great scholar and healer. Eventually she is drawn to Rome where
she becomes enmeshed in a dangerous web of love passion and politics. Triumphing over
appalling odds she finally attains the highest office in Christendom-wielding a power greater
than any woman before or since. But such power always comes at a price . . . "Brings the
savage ninth century vividly to life in all its alien richness. An enthralling scholarly
historical novel."-Rebecca Fraser author of The Brontës
