"Engaging . . . Pope Joan has all the elements: love, sex, violence, duplicity, and long-buried secrets."--Los Angeles Times Book ReviewFor a thousand years men have denied her existence--Pope Joan, the woman who disguised herself as a man and rose to rule Christianity for two years. Now this compelling novel animates the legend with a portrait of ...more

Soon to be a major motion picture from the company that brought you The Name of the Rose"Pope Joan has all the elements one wants in a historical drama–love, sex, violence, duplicity, and long-buried secrets. Cross has written an engaging book."–Los Angeles Times Book ReviewFor a thousand years her existence has been denied. She is the legend t...more

Brilliant and talented, young Joan rebels against the medieval social strictures forbidding women to learn to read and write. When her brother is killed during a Viking attack, Joan takes up his cloak and identity and goes to the monastery of Fulda to be initiated into the brotherhood. As Brother John Anglicus, Joan distinguishes herself as a great...more