This immersive tale of the Middle Ages in France draws us
into the life of a woman and a peddler. Lady Celeste has
married well, but her baby has died and she is ill in bed at
an abbey, sick with grief. When she notices a peddler with a
donkey she is driven by desperation and asks him to buy a
nail from her child's coffin which, as superstition has it,
will sell him her sorrow. But the peddler, Jean, spots a
ruby ring on her finger and asks for it as well.
THE SORROW STONE moves on with Jean as he trades his casks
of exotic spices and sugars and blessed tokens. He does
wonder though if the superstition could bring him ill luck,
and he daren't sell the ring for fear of being accused of
theft. Lady Celeste, suffering from memory loss, is also
worried that her lordly husband may be furious that she has
traded away his wedding ring. And she is certain that
something bad is afoot, which she could escape by staying
in the abbey with her faithful young maidservant, but
having second thoughts about the ring means she has to
leave to follow the peddler.
Riding and walking through twelfth century France with its
peasantry, religious dogma and superstition has never felt
so real. Embrace the festivals, cloisters and markets, the
innkeeps, pilgrims and ruffians. Author Jane Ann McLachlan
spent time in France researching and tells us she traveled
to Cluny, Lyon, Avignon and Marseilles along the route Jean
and Celeste took, talking to guides and local historians
about the climate, vegetation, landscape, castles,
monasteries, and cathedrals that existed there in the 12th
Century.
I can't think of a better historical drama -- and indeed a
romance -- to read this year. Many of the historical novels
are about men, because they had more freedom of movement
and more active roles. THE SORROW STONE by J.A. McLachlan
brings home what it
was like to be a lady or maid.
Winner of the Royal Palm Literary Award for Historical Fiction.
What if you could pay someone to take away your sorrow?
In the middle ages people believed a mother mourning her
child could "sell her sorrow" by selling a nail from her
child's coffin to a traveling peddler.
Lady Celeste is overwhelmed with grief when her son dies.
Desperate for relief, she begs a passing peddler to buy her
sorrow. Jean, the cynical peddler she meets, is nobody's
fool; he insists she include her ruby ring along with the
nail in return for his coin.
A strange but welcome forgetfulness comes over Celeste when
the transaction is completed – until she learns that without
her wedding ring her husband may set her aside, leaving her
ruined. She embarks on an urgent journey to retrieve it. But
how will she find the peddler and convince him to give up
the precious ruby ring?
Pretending to be on pilgrimage, Lady Celeste secretly hunts
for the peddler. In dreams and brief flashes her memory
begins to return, slowly revealing a dangerous secret buried
in her past. Will she learn what she needs to know in time
to save herself, or will the knowledge destroy her?
If you like realistic, well-researched historical fiction
with evocative prose, complex characters and a unique story,
you’ll love THE SORROW STONE. Travel to 12th Century France
with this compelling story based on an actual medieval
superstition.
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