God's Fool: The Life of Francis of Assisi »

Julien Green, novelist and diarist, is the celebrated author of more than forty books, including The Closed Garden, The Transgressor, Moira, The Other Sleep, and Journals, 1938-1971. A pivotal figure in the Paris literary scene of the 1920s and 1930s, he became in 1971 the only American writer to be elected to the Academie Française.

This warm, richly detailed biography brings the beloved saint alive in all his human and profoundly spiritual dimensions.

Library Journal

The virtues of this portrayal of Francis of Assisi are those of its inspirer. With disarming simplicity and candor, Julien Green (a well-known bilingual novelist who was the first English-speaking person elected to the French Academy) unfolds the life of il Poverello , who was not merely converted to Christianity but utterly transformed and abandoned to the truth of the Gospel. Though familial ambitions attempted to shape and control him, and the historical milieu to set its mark upon him, Francis chose, instead, ``perfect destitution,'' joy, song, and the wonders of nature. The rarity of such a transformation is the secret of Francis's endless appeal. The thoughtful, lucid prose that made the book a bestseller in Europe is marvelously evident in this translation. Highly recommended for general collections. Carol J. Lichtenberg, Washington State Univ. Lib., Pullman