When she leaves behind a childhood of hardship and tragedy, she finally finds her place in the physical realm of combat. She is active, pursuing her own interests and moving with unfettered momentum until she meets an obstacle, and as she grows both physically and mentally stronger, she sets to knocking down anything in her path. I think the Joan of this book is incredibly self-aware of her womanhood and how it sets apart and distinguishes her.” “ Certain characters in the novel, even those who are Joan’s allies, don’t necessarily know how to treat her or how to behave around her because she is a woman.” Chen didn’t want “to make Joan too much one of the boys she has perhaps joined their club, so to speak, for the time being, but she is not and never would be one of them.

She prefers playing at games of war with her brothers to quiet housework and preparing to please a husband. A human being, a young woman, of extraordinary ability, yes, but a flesh-and-blood individual, who sweats, cries, laughs, shouts.”Ĭhen’s Joan d’Arc is a plain-faced and plain-speaking peasant girl who grows into a tall, broad-shouldered young woman. You have to see her as a person, just a person. “ I had to consider and really mull over how to translate Joan’s story into fiction, and to do so, you have to somehow peel back the stonework, the marble, and the gilding that we, as a society, have used to adorn her. To take on this ambitious retelling, Chen said:

The plain, eponymous title gives the reader a hint at Chen’s approach.

Chen has not only found a foothold to stand among the many portrayals of Joan of Arc’s life, but she has also found something new to say about the role of a woman at war that will resonate soundly with modern audiences. In her novel Joan (Random House US/Hodder & Stoughton, 2022), Katherine J.

Mythologized even in her own time, to retell her story one must find a place within a crowded field of ballads, books, paintings, and films. Among stained-glass window displays of barefoot hermits and veiled martyrs, Joan stands out in saintly iconography with her armor and boyish haircut, often portrayed waving a banner or leading a battle charge. Joan of Arc was canonized by the Catholic Church nearly 500 years after her death, a testament to the enduring public interest in her life and works.

Joan katherine chen