THE SPIRAL STAIRCASE

In the lucid yet reflective manner that is Karen Armstrong's trademark, The Spiral Staircase recalls her painful early life as a nun, her even more painful re-entry into secular society, and most compellingly, the long-undiagnosed epilepsy that made her life a horror show of phantom visions and misplaced hours. We follow her to the Middle East and elsewhere as she searches for answers to questions no less daunting than the significance of faith. Armstrongs learned views are especially resonant. But The Spiral Staircase - its name inspired by T S Eliot's poem cycle Ash-Wednesday - is not a polemic, despite her forceful and persuasive arguments for religious tolerance. Rather, it's a beautiful letter sent by a gifted writer attempting to decode the meaning of her life.