The story takes place in medieval times, in a fictive town. This level of abstraction brings us to a more symbolic plane in which the events could reflect today's society. And to a larg extent it is. The lead character, Marek, is a deformed boy who lives with his father outside the borders of the town, but with some contacts within the town, especially the son of the lord of the castle, Villiam, who is a ruthless ruler who couldn't care less about the drought that hits the land and impoverishes all his serfs, and who is aided by Barnabas, the priest.
Religion and power rule, and the characters in the book try to live despite this unholy alliance. Despite some strange plot twists, the characters remain rather flat, with little opportunity to really feel empathy with them. They act, they do things, but you never really get under their skin, as is often the case in literature from the Middle Ages, but then at least the author could have used more stylistical technique to recreate the literary context about which she writes, but she doesn't. I will not disclose the ending, in case you might still be interested to read the book, but that too is disappointing. None of the characters are interesting, the story meanders too much, and there is not much joy to be had from the writing itself, and in the end, what is the moral of the tale ... I am not sure there is one.
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