A young scribe and illuminator in 15th century Holland must choose between thecloister and the hearth. Gerard Eliassoen possesses extraordinary artistic talent and a spiritual calling that pulls him toward the priesthood, but he falls in love with Catherine, a woman whose dark secret makes their union impossible in the eyes of the Church. His father Elias, a struggling cloth merchant with a houseful of children, represents another kind of claim - the weight of family obligation, of bread to be earned, of roots in the cold but living earth. Gerard's journey takes him across medieval Europe - through the flourishing cities of Burgundy, the dangerous roads of France, the monasteries and courts where his talents might flourish or perish. Reade paints the period in astonishing detail: the texture of vellum, the smell of tanneries, the hierarchy of guilds, the first printing presses beginning to transform knowledge. The novel crackles with the energy of a writer who fought his publishers over a heroine's unmarried pregnancy - then published anyway. It endures because it captures an ache that never ages: the impossible arithmetic of choosing between duty to God and duty to the heart, between the sacred stillness of the cloister and the desperate, beautiful chaos of love at the hearth.
