Voices: The Final Hours of Joan of Arc

In honor of National Poetry month I thought I’d to my usual reviews of novels-in-verse. This one, Voices : The Final Hours of Joan of Arc by David Elliott (author of Bull), fulfills all one would want in a book (if they want poetry, wit, humor, and history).

Told through medieval poetic forms and in the voices of the people and objects in Joan of Arc’s life, (including her family and even the trees, clothes, cows, and candles of her childhood). Along the way it explores issues such as gender, misogyny, and the peril of speaking truth to power. Before Joan of Arc became a saint, she was a girl inspired (or was she mad?). This book explores the possibilities in the most clever of ways.