Island of Mists and Miracles

By: Victoria Mas

Published by Penguin Books, Limited, 2025-04-17

<b><i>The Mad Women's Ball </i>is now an Amazon Prime Video Original Film starring Mélanie Laurent and Lou de Louâge.</b> <p> Sometimes the truth lies in the things you cannot see. <p> In 1830 a young novice called Catherine Labouré was granted a vision of the Virgin Mary. Nearly 200 years later, Sister Anne is also waiting for a sign. Which is why she accepts a mission to go to a tiny community on an island just off the coast of Brittany. Her only companion there is a skeptical, chain-smoking older nun who just wants to be left in peace. <p> On the island she meets Hugo, the son of a devout family who prefers to look for the meaning of life amid the stars; Madenn, a grandmother whose daughter was killed in a crash and who finds meaning in routine; Isaac, Madenn's grandson, an otherworldly teenager who doesn't fit in but who befriends Hugo, and Julia, a sickly child. If anyone needs a miracle, it is her. <p> But it is not Sister Anne who receives a vision. Instead, it is Isaac who is found on a promontory, transfixed, unable to utter more than the words 'I see'. The event soon becomes headline news, and the world descends on the small island, opening old wounds and unleashing a chain of events none of them could have foreseen.