"Saint Therese of Lisieux, who lived in obscurity in a Carmelite convent until her death at the age of twenty-four, became - through her posthumously published autobiography - one of the world's most influential religious figures. In Saint Therese of Lisieux, bestselling novelist and memoirist Kathryn Harrison, whose depictions of women have been called "powerful" (The New York Time Book Review) and "luminously intelligent" (The Boston Sunday Globe), brings to the saint's life her storytelling gift and deep insight as she reveals the hopes and fears of the young girl behind the religious icon." "Saint Therese of Lisieux shows us the pampered daughter of successful and deeply religious tradespeople and one who - through a personal appeal to the pope - entered a convent at the early age of fifteen. There, Therese embraced sacrifice and self-renunciation in a single-minded pursuit of the "nothingness" she felt would bring her closer to God. With feeling, Harrison shows us the sensitive fourteen-year-old whose mother's death haunted her forever and contributed to the ascetic spirituality that strengthened her to accept even the deadly throes of tuberculosis. Tellingly placed in the context of late-nineteenth-century French social and religious practices, this is a powerful story of a life lived with enormous passion and a searing, triumphant voyage of the spirit."--BOOK JACKET.