Publisher's Synopsis
Novice Number Nine is a lighthearted journey of a woman in her early twenties who leaves the laid-back beach life-style in Southern California to join a strict Order of Trappistine nuns in a monastery in Arizona. Anne follows the fast-pace monastic schedule: waking to the sound of a bell at 3:15 A.M., chanting Psalms, sitting through periods of meditation coupled with working in the community's garden, learning first-hand the meaning of ora et labora. Raised by parents with a father who finds his spirits in a bottle instead of a church, Anne's upbringing follows her into the cloister where wild boars, rattlesnakes, and ping-pong matches with an abbot unintentionally serve as lessons to help her come to terms with her past. The dangerous elements in the desert... snakes, monsoons, lightning strikes... Anne discovers are not as difficult as struggling against something she can't see, when after two years, she develops mysterious symptoms leading to a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis forcing her to give up her vocation and start her real journey.
