La catedral del mar - Ildefonso Falcones
Another book that asks to be finished as soon as possible, because you just want to see what will happen, and when there are 20 pages to the end there are still so many open doors that you wonder whether anything will go the right way…(But it does, don’t worry).
As I’ve said before, it all begins with the marriage of this Spanish guy, in 1320, and with the event that will change his life: his lord comes to the marriage and demands to use his right of Ius Primae Noctis (which of course was that awful law that allowed the lord of a land to lay with the newly-wed wife of any of his farmers).
This opens the way to: the birth of a child; the escape from the tyranny of this “lord”; the arrival in Barcelona, when the works for the new cathedral of Santa Maria are beginning, which will be so important for the above mentioned child, who is going to be the star of the story for the next 500 pages. A lot of things happen, as told before: war, plague, riots and fights between Christians and Jews, fires, love and sex, tyranny again, betrayals, the Inquisition, and still this cathedral to be finished, little by little. When the last pages arrive, you can finally breath: 64 years have passed, and a lot has happened, and it’s almost 3 o’clock at night….
Warning: we are at page 612, and there are 13 pages to the end. The star, Arnau, whose life we have followed all along, must tell something to the woman he’s loved for the past 10 years, and what he needs to tell her is a secret, a vow taken after his first wife died..but we are not told what is the vow, why should we, we were there when he took the vow! Only he took it at page 327!!! And so please picture me while, it’s almost 3 a.m., after reading for hours, craving to see the end, learn that I don’t really remember what happened when the wife died. (I did remember that the scene of him bringing her out of the house after her death, carrying her in his arms, looked a real lot like a scene of “The betrothed” of Alessandro Manzoni, back to 200 years ago, a masterpiece of historical fiction (and of Italian literature). ). Anyway, if you read the book take note of the pages I have just told you, because you will need them…
As I’ve said before, it all begins with the marriage of this Spanish guy, in 1320, and with the event that will change his life: his lord comes to the marriage and demands to use his right of Ius Primae Noctis (which of course was that awful law that allowed the lord of a land to lay with the newly-wed wife of any of his farmers).
This opens the way to: the birth of a child; the escape from the tyranny of this “lord”; the arrival in Barcelona, when the works for the new cathedral of Santa Maria are beginning, which will be so important for the above mentioned child, who is going to be the star of the story for the next 500 pages. A lot of things happen, as told before: war, plague, riots and fights between Christians and Jews, fires, love and sex, tyranny again, betrayals, the Inquisition, and still this cathedral to be finished, little by little. When the last pages arrive, you can finally breath: 64 years have passed, and a lot has happened, and it’s almost 3 o’clock at night….
Warning: we are at page 612, and there are 13 pages to the end. The star, Arnau, whose life we have followed all along, must tell something to the woman he’s loved for the past 10 years, and what he needs to tell her is a secret, a vow taken after his first wife died..but we are not told what is the vow, why should we, we were there when he took the vow! Only he took it at page 327!!! And so please picture me while, it’s almost 3 a.m., after reading for hours, craving to see the end, learn that I don’t really remember what happened when the wife died. (I did remember that the scene of him bringing her out of the house after her death, carrying her in his arms, looked a real lot like a scene of “The betrothed” of Alessandro Manzoni, back to 200 years ago, a masterpiece of historical fiction (and of Italian literature). ). Anyway, if you read the book take note of the pages I have just told you, because you will need them…
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posted by Peggy @ 10:03 AM
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