Author Carole Martinez, a former actress and photographer, currently teaches French in a middle school in Issy-les-Moulineaux. She began writing during her maternity leave in 2005.
France
Carole Martinez
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In 1187, 15-year-old Esclarmonde refuses to marry, choosing instead the life of an anchorite. Chapel walls are built around her and she bears a child. As the baby demands the maturity of a woman, Esclarmonde changes and eventually comes to regret her teenage desire to be a saint.— Mar 4 2014![]()
The Castle of Whispers, a new novel by bestselling French author Carole Martinez, is part fantasy and part hard-hitting social commentary. Martinez draws on France's rich tradition of courtly love, medieval marriage rituals and religious fervor to transport the reader to 12th-century...— Feb 17 2014![]()
Carole Martinez is a rising star of historic fiction in France this is her second novel. She is a middle school teacher,she began writing during maternity leave nine years ago. This her second novel won the Goncourt Lyceens in 2011, previous winners are Phillippe Claude and...— Jan 29 2014![]()
In this magical tale, a family saga ranging from southern Spain to Algeria, Frasquita Carasco can raise the dead and sew gowns that beautify whoever wears them, while her daughter can stir lust and revolutionary fervor alike. Gorgeously rendered yet tinged with the outsider’s...— Jan 6 2014![]()
Rather than marry a brute, a 12th-century damsel opts for the life of an anchoress, walled up in a cell, in this mystical French story infused with fairy tale and feminism. On a cliff overlooking the Loue river, the ruined Castle of Whispers is given voice by its virgin,...— Dec 7 2013![]()
Frasquita, a Spanish woman living in a small, rural village, has a talent for sewing: she is able to weave clothing into beautifully intricate designs and even uses her thread to suture wounds. When her husband gambles away her home, she takes her children and...— Mar 16 2013![]()
THE THREADS OF THE HEART is an epic tale exposing the magical gifts and peculiar sufferings of a family of impoverished Spanish women. Already a publishing sensation in France and Italy, this beautiful descendant of the 20th century masterworks of magic realism deserves...— Feb 26 2013![]()
This debut book by Carole Martinez was first published to much acclaim in France, it is now available in an English translation by Howard Curtis. There are obvious parallels between this book and ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE, something which the publisher...— Feb 14 2013![]()
In her swirling debut novel THE THREADS OF THE HEART, the French writer Carole Martinez follows the turbulent life of Frasquita Carasco, a 19th century Spanish seamstress with mystical powers. The witty, dark and surreal novel is narrated by Soledad, the last of...— Jan 11 2013![]()
Passed down from mother to daughter, a simple wooden box contains the unknown legacy of generations of women in Frasquita’s family. When it is her turn to unearth the chest from its hiding place beneath gnarled olive trees, Frasquita discovers mere needles and threads, but...— Jan 1 2013![]()
Spanning southern Spain to Algeria, this mythic family tale follows a roving band of women through the amazing story of magical seamstress Frasquita Carasco, who, among other miracles, uses her otherworldly powers to raise the dead. Thanks to a box containing arcane secrets...— Dec 4 2012
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