England, 1348. A gentlewoman flees an odious arranged marriage, a Scots proctor sets out for Avignon and a young ploughman in search of freedom is on his way to volunteer with a company of archers. All come together on the road to Calais.
Coming in their direction from across the Channel is the Black Death, the plague that will wipe out half of the population of Northern Europe. As the journey unfolds, overshadowed by the archers' past misdeeds and clerical warnings of the imminent end of the world, the wayfarers must confront the nature of their loves and desires.
A tremendous feat of language and empathy, it summons a medieval world that is at once uncannily plausible, utterly alien and eerily reflective of our own. James Meek's extraordinary To Calais, In Ordinary Time is a novel about love, class, faith, loss, gender and desire - set against one of the biggest cataclysms of human history.
My Review
I thought this book was excellent. Initially, I was a little concerned about the author's use of Middle English, but as I got into the book, I found it was not that difficult to understand. The story takes place in the middle of the Black Plague, and it shows a somewhat different view— is it divine retribution? Is it a hoax? I thought it was fascinating to see how people might have viewed this terrible disease.
This is a story that I read long into the night. It is certainly very engaging and extremely entertaining.
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