The Hours

In The Hours, Michael Cunningham—widely praised as one of the most gifted writers of his generation—draws inventively on the life and work of Virginia Woolf to tell the story of a group of contemporary characters struggling with the conflicting claims of love and inheritance, hope and despair. The narrative of Woolf ’s last days before her suicide early in World War II counterpoints the fictional stories of Richard, a famous poet whose life has been shadowed by his talented and troubled mother, and his lifelong friend Clarissa, who strives to forge a balanced and rewarding life in spite of the demands of friends, lovers and family. Passionate, profound and deeply moving, The Hours is Cunningham’s most remarkable achievement to date.

Winner of the 1999 Pulitzer Prize and Pen Faulkner prize. Made into an Oscar-winning film, ‘The Hours’ is a daring and deeply affecting novel inspired by the life and work of Virginia Woolf.

Castle Priory is a crumbling Oxfordshire mansion, one Brian Blackstone's wife considered a place of extraordinary enchantment. But for Brian there is no enchantment, only the burden of trying to honor Sarah's dying wish that he hold onto the property. With the local doctor, Cecilia Keeble, Brian begins to explore the mysteries of the old estate. In the process he discovers a medieval secret which offers a key to renew his spirit and heal his broken heart. The power of prayer reaches through the centuries in a surprising and mysterious way…

Edie Burchill visits Milderhurst Castle where her mother stayed during World War II, discovering the three elderly sisters of the castle still alive but haunted by the secrets of their past life with their father, a famous children's author.

Eastern and Western Christians share a rich spiritual heritage in the Hours of Prayer--the brief services of praise and psalmody that mark the progress of each day, sanctifying the hours of our lives. In this gem of a book, Patricia Egan digs deeply into the meaning of each of the Hours, drawing on poetry, nature, experience, and theology to show how the services reflect the different aspects of our salvation and our lives. A Book of Hours is an excellent companion for anyone who wants to experience the blessing of praying through the Hours of each day. Inside pages are printed in two colors and feature calligraphy elements by Carla Harris.

William Storey, compiler of some of the best-loved prayer books of our time, has selected the most beautiful elements from the full Liturgy of the Hours and other sources to create a simpler book for Morning and Evening Prayer. Intended for individuals and groups who want to taste the venerable tradition of using scripture to offer praise, thanksgiving and intercessions at dawn and sunset, this new book provides a four-week cycle of prayer. Each "hour" includes a psalm, a canticle and a brief reading from the Old or New Testament, interspersed with prayers that echo the biblical poetry. An introduction explains how to use the book, and supplementary sections offer an order for night prayer, basic prayers, hymns and additional scripture readings.

A spellbinding historical novel about a woman who befriends Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, and is drawn into their world of intrigue, from the author of Margot and The Lost Letter On June 19, 1953, Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were executed for conspiring to commit espionage. The day Ethel was first arrested in 1950, she left her two young sons with a neighbor, and she never came home to them again. Brilliantly melding fact and fiction, Jillian Cantor reimagines the life of that neighbor, and the life of Ethel and Julius, an ordinary-seeming Jewish couple who became the only Americans put to death for spying during the Cold War. A few years earlier, in 1947, Millie Stein moves with her husband, Ed, and their toddler son, David, into an apartment on the eleventh floor in Knickerbocker Village on New York’s Lower East Side. Her new neighbors are the Rosenbergs. Struggling to care for David, who doesn’t speak, and isolated from other “normal” families, Millie meets Jake, a psychologist who says he can help David, and befriends Ethel, also a young mother. Millie and Ethel’s lives as friends, wives, mothers, and neighbors entwine, even as chaos begins to swirl around the Rosenbergs and the FBI closes in. Millie begins to question her own husband’s political loyalty and her marriage, and whether she can trust Jake and the deep connection they have forged as they secretly work with David. Caught between these two men, both of whom have their own agendas, and desperate to help her friends, Millie will find herself drawn into the dramatic course of history. As Millie—trusting and naive—is thrown into a world of lies, intrigue, spies and counterspies, she realizes she must fight for what she believes, who she loves, and what is right.

In Praying the Hours Suzanne Guthrie offers us a contemporary way to practice the ancient tradition of hallowing time throughout the day by marking the hours with prayer and thanksgiving. With humor and wisdom she draws on her experience as a wife, mother, Episcopal priest, and teacher of children, showing us through her own life how these devotions can fold into the times of a hectic day. By praying the hours all the activities of our days — our eating, sleeping, working, cleaning, playing, and reading — become part of the sanctification of time and place. In part one Guthrie focuses on the importance of stability of place in the life of prayer. “Every time I move,” she observes, “I have to learn to pray all over again,” and she describes how she has learned to make a new home a house of prayer. In part two Guthrie takes us through the hours of prayer in the monastic day and explores how praying at fixed hours through the day can draw us closer to God. Praying the Hours is one of our series of Cowley Cloister Books: smaller format, gift edition books designed for meditative and devotional reading.