It is 1311, and the Albigensian Crusade against the Cathars in southern France has been officially over for more than eighty years. During that crusade, thousands-perhaps hundreds of thousands-died at the hands of the Catholic Church and the kings of France, many burned in huge bonfires outside the walls of villages and castles. Now the eyes of the Inquisition have turned toward the last Cathars, humble peasants living high in the Pyrenees Mountains of southern France. The time has come to rid the world of the Cathar heresy once and for all. . . .
Guillaume, the son of a Cathar mother, and due to unfortunate circumstances, a father of uncertain identity, is born into this fray. His early years are spent in the tranquil mountain village of Sabartés where Catholics and Cathars live in peace, but the Inquisition is on its way. Catholic priests, a Cathar parfait, an old crone with apparent magic powers, a Templar knight, a fallen noble, shepherds crossing the mountains into Catalonia, brigands from Armagnac, and masons working on the mighty walls of Carcassonne have their turns influencing and broadening Guillaume's perceptions of his turbulent world as he grows up on the run evading the Inquisition. Will Guillaume ever discover the identity of his father and confront him? Will a budding love fill his life with joy, or will he finally face that dark menace from his past and meet a fiery death?
This novel is set in an historical context that is often surprising and sometimes shocking, yet is historically authentic in every way. Most significant is the authenticity of the intimate lives, practices, and attitudes of the French peasantry, carefully crafted from actual peasant testimonies given before the Catholic Inquisition between the years 1318 and 1325 and recorded by the notaries of Jacques Fournier, the Bishop of Pamiers.
Blunt, forceful, compelling, and unrelenting towards historical truth are all words and phrases that have been applied to this story by its readers. Expect a tale, skillfully told, that grips your heart as much as it engages your imagination.
