The Princess Pourquoi

Born with a name that means 'why' in a kingdom that tolerates no questions, Princess Pourquoi is cursed at her christening by a slighted fairy: she shall have a mind that cannot stop seeking answers. In medieval England, this is not a blessing but a burden. While her siblings learn embroidery and courtesy, she dissects the world with relentless curiosity, asking what no princess should ask and seeing what her court would prefer remain hidden. Her father the king grows weary of her questions; her mother offers pity instead of understanding. Yet the princess cannot help herself. She is lonely in her wisdom, gifted in her loneliness. What begins as a fairy tale of royal expectation becomes something quieter and stranger: a meditation on the cost of thinking in a world that demands compliance. Sherwood writes with delicate precision about the pain of being too awake in a kingdom of sleepwalkers. A small, strange, melancholy book about the courage it takes to remain curious when the world rewards silence.