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'You start the forty days of Lent, in your ice-cold convent, receiving neither visitors nor letters, and whilst you settle into the comfortable intimacy of a god made to your own measure, I stay in the wilderness.' So begins this beautiful and moving story of unfulfilled love. 40 petitions follow in which the narrator uncompromisingly explores her feelings of intense longing and intense hatred for her beloved. The strands of a life have been devastated by the war in Spain and by a mother's betrayal. Only one response will come. Written with extraordinary grace and intensity of feeling, once read, this novel cannot be forgotten. It was first published in France under the title Un Corps en Trop and was the first book by the author who had become a classics teacher. She committed suicide aged 42 just prior to its publication. English translation, facsimile reprint of the 1994 edition, 134pp in small, neat hardback.