LoveReading Says
Power, seduction, obsession, manipulation, and the role we assign to fate, Katy Hays’ The Cloisters is a divinely suspenseful novel, thronging with sultry atmosphere, otherworldly Renaissance magic, and real-world ambition.
Still grieving her father, Ann moves from her small-town home to New York City to take up an internship at the Met. On arrival, fate steps in (perhaps…) and sees her assigned to a different curator in a different part of the Met. Namely, The Cloisters, a Gothic maze of a museum known for its medieval and Renaissance artefacts.
Patrick, the curator of The Cloisters and his outrageously wealthy young assistant have a special interest in arcane history, with Patrick obsessed with rare Tarot cards. When Ann is drawn into this obsession and makes her own discoveries, she becomes entangled in a web of power-play, and decides she needs to take control of her own fate.
Menacing and exquisitely mapped The Cloisters explores the impulse for self-preservation, and for safeguarding “our own best interests, our own goals and dreams.” Perhaps paradoxically, when a tarot reading suggests Ann should follow her own intuition, she defies fate by doing exactly that — she carves out her own destiny, creates her own opportunities, forges her own future. What a satisfyingly thrilling, chilling, seductive story.
Reviewed by Joanne OwenJoanne Owen’s lifelong love of reading and writing began when she was growing up in Pembrokeshire, and very much wished that witches (and Mrs Pepperpot) were real.
More reviews by Joanne Owen About The Cloisters
Ann Stilwell arrives in New York City, hoping to spend her summer working at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Instead, she is assigned to The Cloisters, a gothic museum and garden renowned for its medieval and Renaissance collections.
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The Cloisters Synopsis
Ann Stilwell arrives in New York City, hoping to spend her summer working at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Instead, she is assigned to The Cloisters, a gothic museum and garden renowned for its medieval and Renaissance collections.
There she is drawn into a small circle of charismatic but enigmatic researchers, each with their own secrets and desires, including the museum's curator, Patrick Roland, who is convinced that the history of Tarot holds the key to unlocking contemporary fortune telling.
Relieved to have left her troubled past behind and eager for the approval of her new colleagues, Ann is only too happy to indulge some of Patrick's more outlandish theories. But when Ann discovers a mysterious, once-thought lost deck of 15th-century Italian tarot cards she suddenly finds herself at the centre of a dangerous game of power, toxic friendship and ambition.
And as the game being played within the Cloisters spirals out of control, Ann must decide whether she is truly able to defy the cards and shape her own future . . .
Bringing together the modern and the arcane, The Cloisters is a rich, thrillingly-told tale of obsession and the ruthless pursuit of power.
About This Edition
| ISBN: |
9781804990032 |
| Publication date: |
1st February 2024 |
| Author: |
Katy Hays |
| Publisher: |
Penguin (Transworld) an imprint of Transworld Publishers Ltd |
| Format: |
Paperback |
| Pagination: |
401 pages |
| Primary Genre |
Historical Fiction
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| Other Genres: |
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| Recommendations: |
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Katy Hays Press Reviews
Elegant and atmospheric and suffused with brooding menace, The Cloisters transports us to the dark corridors of museum life, embroiling the reader in a twisting mystery, while also intelligently exploring the nature of fate versus freewill. -- LUCY CLARKE, author of The Castaways
Glamour, power, seduction, ambition - The Cloisters has it all. I adored this deliciously gothic, beautifully written novel. -- LOUISE O'NEILL, author of Idol
The dark and enigmatic world of The Cloisters captured me from the off . . . a story of academic obsession, Renaissance magic and the ruthless pursuit of power. Captivating in every sense. -- SARAH PEARSE, author of The Sanatorium
Sultry and sinister . . . Hays' debut teems with sexual tension, the secrets of divination, and scholarly obsessiveness . . . jaw-dropping. -- SARAH PENNER, author of The Lost Apothecary
'Dark and compelling . . . richly atmospheric and full of historic detail, it draws the reader into its world of the archive and the occult. As its central mystery unfolds amid the stifling heat of a New York Summer it soon becomes clear that nobody in it is quite who they first appear.' -- SALLY HINCHCLIFFE, author of Hare House
Like the moment before a thunderstorm on a summer afternoon, The Cloisters is sultry, lush, and trembling with menace. - JULIA MAY JONAS, author of Vladimir
The Cloisters blew me away. A one sitting read. Absolutely stunning, brilliant twists and gorgeous sensual writing. Adored it. -- HEATHER DARWENT, author of The Things We Do to Our Friends
A tour de force by an important new voice . . . a rich tapestry that speaks to issues of privilege, power, and ambition-and, more than anything, the darkness lurking just inside ivory towers . . . incredibly compelling, The Cloisters grabbed me in a way that no book has done since The Secret History. -- RACHEL KAPELKE-DALE, author of The Ballerinas -
