The Time Before You Die: A Novel of the Reformation

By Lucy Beckett

Book Overview

A powerful, beautifully written novel of loss, finding and being found, set in a very traumatic time in European history--the Protestant Reformation. The turbulent sixteenth century saw the disintegration of medieval Christendom as it was split into sovereign states. This was particularly destructive in Tudor England, where rapid switches in government policy and religious persecution shattered the lives of many.

Especially affected were the monks and nuns who were persecuted by the wholesale dissolution of the monasteries carried out under Henry VIII. One of these monks, Robert Fletcher, a Carthusian of the dismantled priory of Mount Grace in Yorkshire, is the hero of this novel.

The story of this strong, vulnerable man is told in counterpoint with the story of one of the most interesting men in all of English history, Reginald Pole, a nobleman, scholar and theologian who was exiled to Italy for twenty years. He was a cardinal of the Church and a papal legate at the Council of Trent. As the archbishop of Canterbury, with his cousin Queen Mary Tudor, he tried, in too short a time, to renew Catholic England. This man, in the tragic last months of his life, becomes in the novel the friend of Robert Fletcher, condemned as a heretic.

Readers will learn much from this novel of the anguished period that gave birth to Tridentine Catholicism, the Anglican Church, and other Protestant churches. This same period saw the martyrdom of Thomas More, Thomas Cranmer, John Fisher and many others. The profound issues raised in this novel, which contains no altered historical facts but more human truth than facts alone can deliver, have not gone away.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1621640744
• ISBN13: 9781621640745
• Release Date: August 2016
• Publisher: Ignatius Press
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 0.86 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.2" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

Fabulous and Beautiful

What a beautiful book! Beckett paints a rich portrait of Reformation England, giving the reader rare and valuable insights into the interior realms of monastic life. I found it both elegant and moving. I wish I was still reading it for the first time!

Beautiful Book

Like the previous reviewer articulated this book truely weaves fictional and historical events to create a beautiful book which conveys the sadness of a world torn apart by religion and politics. Both Catholics and Protestants are presented with their strengths and warts and the complicated political and social factors involved in the reformation/counter reformation and eventual Anglican independence, are presented to help expalin how this tragic moment of history happened. May also give us the insight to prevent denominational squabbles that exist today if the message of the book are meditated on.

Do you feel their pain?

Lucy Beckett does a tremendous job of explaining the confusion of the Reformation in England shortly after the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1536. Using both historical and fictional characters, she weaves the plot by interspersing narrative with letters written by the characters.While most historians seem to take sides on the Reformation issue, or at least point fingers, Beckett's novel brings you into the characters themselves to "feel their pain;" be it the ex-monk turned Protestant reformer who longs to comfort his dying wife and newborn child; or the Catholic Cardinal who longs to reconcile the two sides but meets resistance by both the Vatican and the Protestants. The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars was it seemed a bit sluggish in the beginning. But if you can make it through the sloppy bits, it is a real gem!