The village of Ulewic (the place of the owl in Old English) had a difficult year with crops, animal disease and flooding in 1321. But a community of women living outside the village didn't suffer the same damage to plants and animals. The women in these communities, called beguines, lived an austere and religious life without being nuns. They had the freedom to make choices and cared for the sick and hungry in the village. The women rarely turned people away including individuals cast out by the villages. Rumors also ran rampant that the women practiced evil sexual acts amongst themselves.
Whether from fear, revenge, or in search of an easy scapegoat, the Owl Masters, who held with ancient pagan traditions and rituals, blamed the women for the village's troubles. The Owl Masters ruled the village, and the villagers knew it and feared them more than any punishment from the lord or Church. After all, the priest, Father Ulfrid, wouldn't burn a man alive for sleeping with a maid already promised to another man. The manor lord, Robert D'Acaster, and Father Ulfrid hold secular and religious posts at the whim of, or at least with oversight, of the Owl Masters.
The story revolves around the Owl Masters revenge against the beguinage, and the women's response. The author includes sub-plots throughout the story, introducing the reader to numerous well-drawn characters: Beatrice, a beguine obsessed with having her a child of her own; Agatha/Osmanna, the youngest daughter of D'Acaster who becomes a beguine; Pisspuddle, a young village girl who covets a spot with the tumblers who come to every May Day celebration; and Father Ulfrid, the village priest who has some of his own skeletons hidden in his closet.
Karen Maitland draws the reader back nearly 700 years in this tale of religion, mystery and evil, but it might as well be yesterday with the ease with which she recreates this village of long ago. While Maitland tells us that Ulewic itself is a fictionalized village, many villages of its kind dotted the English coast, and 1321 was a bad year for drought and animal sickness. Beguinages had cropped up throughout the Netherlands and Belgium and while some had traveled to England, none survived long. With exquisite and vivid descriptions, lyrical prose and complex characters, Maitland brings history to life. You can almost hear the pulsing of ritual drums and feel the branches lash at your face in the forest in the midst of a storm.
From the author of Company of Liars, hailed as βa jewel of
a medieval mysteryβ* and βan atmospheric tale of treachery
and magic,β** comes a magnificent new novel of an
embattled village and a group of courageous women who are
set on a collision courseβin an unforgettable storm of
secrets, lust, and rage.England, 1321. The tiny village of
Ulewic teeters between survival and destruction, faith and
doubt, God and demons. For shadowing the villagersβ lives
are men cloaked in masks and secrecy, ruling with
violence, intimidation, and terrifying fiery rites: the
Owl Masters. But another force is touching Ulewicβa newly
formed community built and served only by women. Called a
beguinage, it is a safe harbor of service and faith in
defiance of the all-powerful Church. Behind the walls of
this sanctuary, women have gathered from all walks of
life: a skilled physician, a towering former prostitute, a
cook, a local convert. But life in Ulewic is growing more
dangerous with each passing day. The women are the subject
of rumors, envy, scorn, and furyβ¦until the daughter of
Ulewicβs most powerful man is cast out of her home and
accepted into the beguinageβand battle lines are
drawn.Into this drama are swept innocents and
conspirators: a parish priest trying to save himself from
his own sinsβ¦a village teenager, pregnant and terrifiedβ¦a
woman once on the verge of sainthood, now cast out of the
Church.β¦With Ulewic ravaged by flood and disease, and with
villagers driven by fear, a secret inside the beguinage
will draw the desperate and the depravedβuntil masks are
dropped, faith is testedβ¦and every lie is exposed.*New
York Times Book Review**Marie Claire
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