Pilgrims

A The Times and Sunday Times Book of the Year 'An enthralling and wonderfully vivid novel from a master storyteller' Joseph O'Connor 'Kneale's medieval world is animated with a refreshing lightness of touch' Sunday Telegraph 1289. A rich farmer fears he'll go to hell for cheating his neighbours. His wife wants pilgrim badges to sew into her hat and show off at church. A poor, ragged villager is convinced his beloved cat is suffering in the fires of purgatory and must be rescued. A mother believes her son's dangerous illness is punishment for her own adultery and seeks forgiveness so he may be cured. A landlord is in trouble with the church after he punched an abbot on the nose. A sexually driven noblewoman seeks a divorce so she can marry her new young beau. These are among a ragtag band of pilgrims that sets off on the tough and dangerous journey from England to Rome, where they hope all their troubles and their prayers will be answered. Some in the group, however, have their own secret reasons for going. Others, while they might aspire to piety, succumb all too often to the sins of the flesh. A riveting, sweeping novel of medieval society and historic Englishness, Pilgrims illuminates the fallibility of humans, the absurdities and consolations of belief, and the very real violence at the heart of religious fervour.

A The Times and Sunday Times Book of the Year 'An enthralling and wonderfully vivid novel from a master storyteller' Joseph O'Connor 'Kneale's medieval world is animated with a refreshing lightness of touch' Sunday Telegraph 1289. A rich farmer fears he'll go to hell for cheating his neighbours. His wife wants pilgrim badges to sew into her hat and show off at church. A poor, ragged villager is convinced his beloved cat is suffering in the fires of purgatory and must be rescued. A mother believes her son's dangerous illness is punishment for her own adultery and seeks forgiveness so he may be cured. A landlord is in trouble with the church after he punched an abbot on the nose. A sexually driven noblewoman seeks a divorce so she can marry her new young beau. These are among a ragtag band of pilgrims that sets off on the tough and dangerous journey from England to Rome, where they hope all their troubles and their prayers will be answered. Some in the group, however, have their own secret reasons for going. Others, while they might aspire to piety, succumb all too often to the sins of the flesh. A riveting, sweeping novel of medieval society and historic Englishness, Pilgrims illuminates the fallibility of humans, the absurdities and consolations of belief, and the very real violence at the heart of religious fervour.

Latin was a dead language-until the aliens arrived. Out-of-work Latin teacher and borderline alcoholic Austin DeSantis is determined to spend his final days in the arms of a prostitute-that is if the aliens don't exterminate humanity first. But when the aliens land at the Vatican, begin speaking Latin, and reveal themselves to be Catholic, the world turns upside down. Pressed into service as a translator and thrust into the center of humanity's first contact with a cryptic alien race, Austin must uncover their true intentions before religious turmoil rips the planet apart. But with Austin caught between the Catholic Church, the US military, and an enigmatic alien AI, he'll have to decide where his loyalties lie as the fate of humanity hangs in the balance. PILGRIMS is a sci-fi retelling of Augustine's Confessions, mixing a high-concept premise à la Children of Time with the ceaseless pacing and rich characterization of Red Rising.