The Life of Saint Teresa of Avila
by Carlos Eire,
Princeton, 280pp, £22/$26.95
This incisive, insightful book gets to the heart of the matter about St Teresa of Avila (1515-1582). The author is professor of history and religious studies at Yale University; but he wears his learning lightly and writes wittily, weightily and warmly about St Teresa, a Doctor of the Church.
Also known as Teresa de Jesus, she was a 16th-century Carmelite nun who lived in Ávila, a walled city in central Spain. Her mother died when she was 13 years old.
