Title: The Habitation of the Blessed: A Dirge for Prester John Volume 1
Author: Catherynne M. Valente
Publisher: Night Shade Books
Date (to be) Published: November 2010
Synopsis: (from publisher’s website)
This is the story of a place that never was: the kingdom of Prester John, the utopia described by an anonymous, twelfth-century document which captured the imagination of the medieval world and drove hundreds of lost souls to seek out its secrets, inspiring explorers, missionaries, and kings for centuries. But what if it were all true? What if there was such a place, and a poor, broken priest once stumbled past its borders, discovering, not a Christian paradise, but a country where everything is possible, immortality is easily had, and the Western world is nothing but a dim and distant dream?
Brother Hiob of Luzerne, on missionary work in the Himalayan wilderness on the eve of the eighteenth century, discovers a village guarding a miraculous tree whose branches sprout books instead of fruit. These strange books chronicle the history of the kingdom of Prester John, and Hiob becomes obsessed with the tales they tell. The Habitation of the Blessed recounts the fragmented narratives found within these living volumes, revealing the life of a priest named John, and his rise to power in this country of impossible richness. John’s tale weaves together with the confessions of his wife Hagia, a blemmye–a headless creature who carried her face on her chest–as well as the tender, jeweled nursery stories of Imtithal, nanny to the royal family. Hugo and World Fantasy award nominee Catherynne M. Valente reimagines the legends of Prester John in this stunning tour de force.
Extra: Read an excerpt here: Prester John Online
Where Did It Come From?
I purchased it from Amazon.
Why Did I Choose It?
I love Valente’s work and cannot wait for more.
My Review:
This tree bore neither apples nor plums, but books where fruit should sprout. The bark of its great trunk shone the color of parchment, its leaves a glossy, vibrant red, as if it had drunk up all the colors of the long plain through its roots. In clusters and alone books of all shapes hung among the pointed leaves, their covers obscenely bright and shining, swollen as peaches, gold and green and cerulean, their pages thick as though with juice, their silver ribbonmarks fluttering in the spiced wind.
How could you not fall prey to a book with such elegant prose as that one paragraph?
Valente has again stolen my heart and added another book to my keeper shelves. She uses impressively vivid imagery to detail a rich and powerful tale of four stories that at first seem disjointed and confusing, but before long you are swept along the current of each stream and cannot bear to step away for even just a moment until they meet and mix together a great river you wish would never meet its end.
I stared at my previous three books with the eyes of a starving child – could I not somehow devour them all at once and know their contents entire? Unfair books. You require so much time! Such a meal of the mind is a long, arduous feast indeed.
How joyful would it be to simply consume a book as you do an apple? With every bite, knowledge, and every drop of juice, words? What more could I ask for if it were only that simple. And yet, without dedicating that time to a book, to read it, envision the characters and setting, would it truly be as meaningful or wonderful?
… when a book lies unopened it might contain anything in the world, anything imaginable. It therefore, in that pregnant moment before opening, contains everything. Every possibility, both perfect and putrid.
While this review has given away nothing in regards to the three stories within a story, I hope that it has drawn you, with a few small glimpses, into a book that you will rush out to pick up and read for yourself. It is well worth your time, and while its pages are few, don’t worry if you should lose yourself within and take longer to reach the end.
And with that, I leave you with one last tidbit from an astounding piece of work.
Love is hungry and severe. Love is not unselfish or bashful or servile or gentle. Love demands everything. Love is not serene, and it keeps no records. Love sometimes gives up, loses faith, even hope, and it cannot endure everything. Love, sometimes, ends. But its memory lasts forever, and forever it may come again. Love is not a mountain, it is a wheel. No harsher praxis exists in this world. There are three things that will beggar the heart and make it crawl – faith, hope, and love – and the cruelest of these is love.
Note: perhaps you think I gave this rave reviews only because I’ve loved her other books? Here are some others who share their thoughts after reading this book as well.








[…] http://urbanbachelorette.com/2011/03/01/a-long-overdue-review-the-habitation-of-the-blessed-by-cathe… – “Valente has again stolen my heart and added another book to my keeper shelves.” […]
I think Habitation is going to be known as the book that’s impossible to review, because nothing we say can ever do it justice.
Catherynne Valente is quickly becoming my new favorite author!
So true. People just have to believe when you say it’s so amazing you have to read it for yourself even though our attempts at a description/review will never express just how good it is. I’m glad you’re enjoying her books. What else of hers have you read?