Glamorous Powers

Book excerpt: The time is 1940. Jonathan Darrow is an Anglican priest when he receives a shattering vision and knows he must leave the monastery that has been his home for seventeen years. As he plunges into the temptations of the real world, a crisis sends him into the labyrinth of his past to pluck out the buried truth beneath the deceptions he has been living through. Praise for Glamorous Powers “Fascinating . . . convincing . . . believable.”—Newsday “Mesmerizing . . . holds the reader riveted.”—The Washington Post “Intriguing and wholly involving . . . Darrow is a willful, proud, manipulative man, struggling to subdue his tempestuous character. . . . The resulting crisis—in which Darrow finally faces the necessary process of uncovering deeply buried pain—underlines Ms. Howatch's concern with the continual play of light and dark in the human spirit.”—The New York Times Book Review “Gripping . . . You'll be quite transported. You'll also discover one of the most original novelists writing today.”—Cosmopolitan “Howatch is skillful at plot development and deftly handles [her] subject. . . . Her grasp of psychic experiences and the inner struggle between the urge to do spiritual good and the temptation to exert control make for an engrossing read.”—New York Daily News “Wise, witty . . . Holds the reader spellbound.”—Publishers Weekly