She was a woman and could write. She was plebeian and could read. Born servant, was free. With this impressive beginning, Rose Montero catch the reader and guide him to a submersion in the epic of Leola, the unquestionable protagonist of this novel.
It is about a farmer woman who, in the disturbed France of XII century, stores arrests, first to survive, and then to move with certain freedom. She disguises herself like a horseman (thanks to clothes and fight instruction she receives), in an exclusively masculine world, iron men commanded, where women are only decorative - if lucky.
In the narrative, the author uses many and varied arms. The most important: the
taste by medieval world and the knowledge of feminine soul. The medieval taste allowed him describe with thematic and linguistic fidelity the ambiance and atmosphere, without excessive data -
present only to locate action and to allow protagonist's thoughts to fly.
Feminine universe is present and
reaches importance with Leonor de Aquitania, Nyneve (a kind of white magician and wise squire of her lady) and Duhoda (the bad person, a powerful female). Each one of them has a
place at Leola's adventures, in
different parts of the history.
But there is more, of course. Men also play their role, in spite of Leola's disguise. Although she experiences the survival dilemma, love is present. There are three men who assault their tormented heart and leave her.
Each episode has a mystery, and the reader is trapped in different moments: that time historical convulsions, the debates, and even the critics, acute and very well reasoned, towards the excesses of the papal troops.
Everything mixes in a relate almost supernatural where there is a place, also, to
king Arturo and the mythical Avalon. Then comes the
history of transparent king, that cannot be recounted. Who tries to tell this story dies. The reader only reaches the solution to the problem at the last pages of the book.
It is History and does not make you tired, it is fiction and does not lie, it is magic and affects. Mainly, this novel surprises for it is gentleness written by whom has a narrating matchless taste.
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