A canonized dog that rises from the dead. A girl who has visions. A biracial young monk so strong he can rip wicked fiends limb from limb with his bare hands. A Jewish boy with miraculous healing powers.
They are the French king’s most wanted. Add to that a dragon who incinerates knights with his farts, a plot to destroy all the Jewish religious texts in France and some quicksand, and you have this medieval adventure that is rollicking, thoughtful, whimsical, and profound all at once. Who could resist?
A man has set out to find out who these notorious children are. What is their story? He finds it at the Holy Cross Roads Inn, where a number of the occupants have encountered the children at various times during their adventures. The butcher, the nun, the innkeeper, and others eagerly tell of their encounters with the young so-called saints, and little by little a magnificent story comes together.
It’s a story that touches on race, religious persecution, and foundational questions of faith. And yet it also manages to provide plenty of adventure and humor (sometimes of the potty variety: “I left my ass at the inn!”). For me, it was Gidwitz’s probing of life’s questions that stirred me most. The responses Jacob receives in response to his question, “Why does God allow it?” are profound and in my view, true.
The pages are illuminated with line drawings, as treasured books of the Middle Ages would have been. In a note at the end, Gidwitz explains his inspiration, citing the original tales and stories that inspired some of those in the book (apparently there is mention in a medieval text of a dragon whose gas “burneth as fire”).
By the end, I was bowled over by The Inquisitor’s Tale. A highlight of the year.
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