8 /10 1 Votes
Language English Media type Print (Paperback) Originally published November 2010 Followed by The Folded World Country United States of America | 4/5 Goodreads Publication date November 2010 Pages Approx. 352 pages Publisher Night Shade Books Genres Fiction, Fantasy, Novel | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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ISBN 978-1-59780-199-7 (pbk.) Similar Works by Catherynne M Valente, Fantasy books | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Habitation of the Blessed - subtitled A Dirge for Prester John, Volume One - is a fantasy novel by Catherynne M. Valente, published in November 2010.
Contents
Summary
The novel, a reimagining of the legend of Prester John, begins with the accidental discovery by a missionary monk, Brother Hiob of Luzerne, of a curious village containing a tree whose branches bear books instead of fruit. He plucks three of them, and within them finds three different perspectives on the life of Prester John in the magical land of Pentexore - one by the man himself, one by his Blemmye wife Hagia, and one by a Panotii woman named Imtithal, storyteller and nurse to the royal family. The narrative of the book shifts back and forth between the three texts, interspersed with the reflections of Brother Hiob as he struggles both to transcribe them before the book-fruits rot away and to contend with the vast differences between the stories he finds there and the idealized vision of the legendary king he had previously held.