The Eight

Zusatztext “Readers thrilled by The Da Vinci Code will relish the multi-layered secrets of The Eight .” —MATTHEW PEARL! author of The Dante Club “A BIG! RICH! TWO-TIERED CONFECTION OF A NOVEL . . . A ROUSING! AMUSING GAME.” — San Francisco Chronicle “A fascinating piece of entertainment that manages to be both vibrant and cerebral . . . Few will find it resistible.” — Los Angeles Times Book Review “With alchemical skill! Neville blends modern romance! historical fiction! and medieval mystery . . . and comes up with gold.” — People Informationen zum Autor Katherine Neville is the author of  The Eight, The Magic Circle   (a  USA Today  bestseller), and  A Calculated Risk   (a  New York Times  Notable Book). The Eight has been translated into more than thirty languages. In a national poll in Spain by the noted journal El País , The Eight was voted one of the top ten books of all time. Neville lives in Virginia and Washington, D.C. Klappentext Computer expert Cat Velis is heading for a job to Algeria. Before she goes! a mysterious fortune teller warns her of danger! and an antique dealer asks her to search for pieces to a valuable chess set that has been missing for years...In the South of France in 1790 two convent girls hide valuable pieces of a chess set all over the world! because the game that can be played with them is too powerful.... THE DEFENSE Characters tend to be either for or against the quest. If they assist it, they are idealized as simply gallant or pure; if they obstruct it, they are characterized as simply villainous or cowardly. Hence every typical character . . . tends to have his moral opposite confronting him, like black and white pieces in a chess game. –Anatomy of Criticism, Northrop Frye Montglane Abbey, France Spring 1790 A FLOCK OF NUNS CROSSED THE ROAD, THEIR CRISP WIMPLES fluttering about their heads like the wings of large sea birds. As they floated through the large stone gates of the town, chickens and geese scurried out of their path, flapping and splashing through the mud puddles. The nuns moved through the darkening mist that enveloped the valley each morning and, in silent pairs, headed toward the sound of the deep bell that rang out from the hills above them. They called that spring le Printemps Sanglant, the Bloody Spring. The cherry trees had bloomed early that year, long before the snows had melted from the high mountain peaks. Their fragile branches bent down to earth with the weight of the wet red blossoms. Some said it was a good omen that they had bloomed so soon, a symbol of rebirth after the long and brutal winter. But then the cold rains had come and frozen the blossoms on the bough, leaving the valley buried thick in red blossoms stained with brown streaks of frost. Like a wound congealed with dried blood. And this was said to be another kind of sign. High above the valley, the Abbey of Montglane rose like an enormous outcropping of rock from the crest of the mountain. The fortresslike structure had remained un- touched by the outside world for nearly a thousand years. It was constructed of six or seven layers of wall built one on top of the other. As the original stones eroded over the centuries, new walls were laid outside of old ones, with flying buttresses. The result was a brooding architectural melange whose very appearance fed the rumors about the place. The abbey was the oldest church structure standing intact in France, and it bore an ancient curse that was soon to be reawakened. As the dark-throated bell rang out across the valley, the remaining nuns looked up from their labors one by one, put aside their rakes and hoes, and ...

Product details

• Authors: Katherine Neville
• Publisher: Ballantine
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback
• Released: 14.01.1990
• EAN: 9780345366238
• ISBN: 978-0-345-36623-8
• No. of pages: 598
• Dimensions: 104 mm x 176 mm x 28 mm
• Series: Ballantine Books
• Subject: Fiction > Narrative literature