The Bell

A lay community of thoroughly mixed-up people is encamped outside Imber Abbey, home of an enclosed order of nuns. A new bell is being installed when the old bell, legendary symbol of religion and magic, is unexpectedly rediscovered. Dora Greenfield, erring wife, returns to her husband, Paul, who is working on some fourteenth-century manuscripts that belong to the convent. Michael Meade, leader of the community, is confronted by a man with whom he once had a disastrous affair, while the wise old Abbess watches and prays and exercises discreet authority. Everyone, or almost everyone, hopes to be saved - whatever that may mean. Originally published in 1958, this funny, sad, and moving novel is about religion, sex, the fight between good and evil, and the terrible accidents of human frailty.

Dame Iris Murdoch (1919-1999) was one of the most acclaimed British writers of the twentieth century. Very prolific, she wrote twenty-six novels, four books of philosophy, five plays, a volume of poetry, a libretto, and numerous essays before developing Alzheimer's disease in the mid-1990s. Her novels have won many prizes: the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for The Black Prince, the Whitbread Literary Award for Fiction for The Sacred and Profane Love Machine, and the Booker Prize for The Sea, The Sea. She herself was also the recipient of many esteemed awards: Dame of the Order of the British Empire, the Royal Society of Literature's Companion of Literature award, and the National Arts Club's (New York) Medal of Honor for Literature. In 2008, she was named one of the Times' (London) 50 greatest British writers since 1945.

A. S. Byatt, novelist, short-story writer, and critic, is the author of many books, includingPossession, winner of the Man Booker Prize.