By now, I hope you’ve had a chance to enjoy our first historical fiction addition to the book club, Pope Joan. I’m a huge fan of any historical fiction that uses strong women as the storyline’s main catalyst, so this book had me at hello.
Pope Joan, by Donna Woolfolk Cross, follows the life and death of the Vatican’s only female pope [somewhat controversially] known to us today. The author explains her interest in the topic this way:
“I learned about Joan quite by accident. I was reading a book in French and came across a reference to a pope named “Jeanne.”…[T]he next day I went to the library and checked the Catholic Encyclopedia. Sure enough, there was an entry on Joan–the woman who lived disguised as a man and rose to become Pope of the Church in the ninth century.”
