In a Carmelite monastery on the outskirts of Los Angeles, life continues virtually unchanged for centuries. Sister John of the Cross has spent years there in the service of God. The only one to experience intense visions and the author of a best-selling book on religion, she is regarded by the other nuns as a spiritual master. But Sister John's visions are accompanied by powerful headaches and when a doctor reveals that they may be dangerous, she faces a devastating choice. If her spiritual gifts are symptoms of illness rather than grace, will a 'cure' mean the end of her visions and a soul once again dry and searching? This is the dilemma at the heart of Mark Salzman's new novel. Opening up the mysterious world of the cloister, he draws a brilliant portrait of women who are still drawn to the rigors of religious life, and especially of one woman's trial at the perilous intersection of faith and reason. A best-seller in America, LYING AWAKE is a novel of remarkable empathy and imagination.