“Andes shines in the first volume of this ninth-century historical literary fiction quartet, The Latecoming West, based on the early medieval life of Pope Joan. . . . impeccably researched and skillfully written.”

 —BookLife

What is history, a faithful accounting of events or a carefully crafted narrative, edited and reshaped by the powerful to manipulate and undermine the powerless? John the Angelic, Volume I of A.P. Andes’ quartet, The Latecoming West, weaves multiple storylines across the millennia and explores one of history’s most egregious omissions, excised from the record with cold precision: the brilliant, willful woman, Pope Joan.

A fearless yet soulful spirit, born in the year of Charlemagne’s death, Joan has survived a vicious Viking raid, her father’s murder, and the loss of their home; while educated, she now faces the uncertain existence of a woman in the ninth century unprotected by a man. Craving refuge and a way to nurture her extraordinary curiosity, she adopts the dress and mannerisms of a young man to enter the monastic life, and in the process meets a count who will become her mentor, lover, and closest companion. Though she possesses one of the keenest intellects of her age, Joan faces a spiritual crisis: How can she challenge the strictures of her church while remaining true to the essence of her faith?

As Joan’s erasure from the holy lineage she has briefly become a part of draws near, the narrative summons other cultural warriors spanning the millennia from ancient Greece to the Holocaust. Electrically inventive, this genre-bending novel brings unsung heroes and silenced demons out of the catacombs of collective memory and onto the pages of a new, restored record.