May 11, 2018

The Inquisitor's Tale by Adam Gidwitz (2016) Dutton

Told in tales like Chaucer, a greyhound saves the life of a little baby, but her owners think she slew the baby and kill her.  When they find the snake and the live baby, they bury the dog in the forest and mark the grave.  Soon the dog is treated like a local saint.  But the church is suspicious of such behavior and send out an inquisitor to stamp out such belief.  When the girl is about ten, she visits the grave and the dog is sitting on top waiting for her.  In the meantime, in a Jewish village, some teenage boys set the village on fire and one mother kicks a hole in the back of her mud hut and tells her boy to run and meet up with her in Saint Denis.  At the same time a very large boy, one whose father was a lord and mother was an African Muslim, is told the monastery can no longer afford to feed him and sends him to Saint Denis.  A group of knights come to the little girls village to take her and the dog away for trial in Saint Denis.  And the adventure begins - all stories told in an inn.

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