This book caught my eye months ago when I was at a local bookstore with my kids. I was intrigued, but not quite enough to buy it, or even put it on my TBR list. More recently my kid brought it home from the library, so I pulled it out of her stack for a few hours’ reading outside in the garden. It was a story that definitely kept me turning the pages, but also puzzled me somewhat.
The main character and narrator is a youth simply called Boy, who lived on the grounds of a large manor in medieval times (1300’s I think) and was a goatherd. He was feared, mocked and reviled by others for having a hunchback, but also had a strange ability to talk to animals, and an innocent trusting way of looking at the world. One day a travelling pilgrim appeared, took a liking to Boy (for his ability to climb trees apparently) and demanded that he come along on the journey as his servant. Boy protested at first but was compelled, and after a while found that he liked feeling useful, serving this man by carrying his pack. The pilgrim Secundus was on a quest to gather seven relics of Saint Peter and then visit Saint Peter’s tomb in Rome. Their journey took them many different places, with various adventures and mishaps. Most of which had something to do with finding the relics, and before long Boy realized there was something shady about Secundus, as he was bribing people and committing thievery to obtain them. Boy struggled with the morality of helping this man steal sacred items, but he wanted himself to visit Saint Peter’s tomb, in the hopes of a miracle that would “make him into a real boy.”
At first the reader assumes this means loosing his deformity, but pretty soon you start to realize maybe he’s not deformed after all. Or not in the manner you suspected. I did guess for a while that perhaps he was a girl disguised as a boy, but I was wrong. Anyway, it was a good read but not stellar. Some aspects of the story verge on fantasy which was an odd mix, the people are obsessed with relics all over the place, and there’s a few very dark incidents. It’s full of grime, ignorance and bad smells (that people remark on all the time!) but also wonder and kindness in the least expected places. Oh, and a very brash donkey. I did like the donkey.
Borrowed from the public library.