In the spring of the early 1500s, Jack Lucas wins a gold medal for his brilliance but possesses a body too frail for the rough games of other boys. When his curiosity about the Bible, a book forbidden to common readers, leads him to question the teachings of the Church, he discovers that knowledge itself can be dangerous. Each secret page he turns could bring enlightenment or destruction. The town of Bridgewater watches as a delicate boy undertakes the most perilous quest of all: thinking for himself in an age when thought was regulated. His father, his sister Anne, the kind baker, all become players in a drama where faith and danger intertwine. What begins as a scholar's curiosity becomes a test of conscience that could cost everything. For readers who cherish stories of quiet courage and intellectual defiance, this Victorian novel illuminates how dangerous it once was to simply open a book.
