Unexpectedly comforting. Reminded me of Chambers' Psalm for the Wild Built even though the overall tone and story are quite different.

I‘ve seen this positioned as fiction in some markets & as memoir in others: not a good sign. The memoiresque sections trace Ramqvist‘s research process and her treatment of Marguerite de La Roque is thin--a shame since it‘s an astonishing story. The overall refusal of fiction is odd—there‘s so much that could be done with the story. The focus on memoir keeps, I suspect, Marguerite at arm‘s length—perhaps a refusal to imagine another woman‘s life?