The City of Tears review – Kate Mosse’s compelling 16th-century French epic
Exile and emigration are perennial themes in literature, particularly historic fiction, nevertheless it’s noticeable, studying the second quantity of Kate Mosse’s Burning Chambers trilogy concerning the Huguenot diaspora, how well timed a narrative of refugees appears at this second in Europe’s historical past and the way sharply the parallels stand out.
The City of Tears opens, as did its predecessor, The Burning Chambers, with a prologue set in Nineteenth-century South Africa, a foreshadowing of the place this epic story of conflict and displacement will find yourself, earlier than the narrative returns to 16th-century France, 10 years after the tip of the earlier e book. Minou Joubert and Piet Reydon reside in relative peace of their fortress in south-west France, their very own household and estates an instance of how Catholics and Protestants can amicably coexist. It’s an experiment quickly to be imposed on the entire nation, because the queen mom, Catherine de Medici, makes an attempt to dealer peace by marrying her Catholic daughter Margot to the Huguenot Henri of Navarre, a union opposed by the hardline Catholic faction led by the Duke of Guise. As Minou and Piet make their preparations to go to Paris for the marriage, she asks her brother Aimeric about rumours of bother.
“‘It is hard to separate truth from untruth,” Aimeric conceded, “but there is no doubt Guise wants unrest. He thrives on it. Though he is careful never to speak out of turn, I do not trust him. He gives one message in public from his own mouth, but yet whips up his supporters in anti-Huguenot sentiments in private.”
Fake news, propaganda and leaders whipping up a mob against the government are nothing new; frequently, the novel offers uncanny echoes of current headlines. The Saint Bartholomew’s Day bloodbath of 1572 that adopted that ill-advised wedding ceremony, when 1000’s of Protestants have been murdered of their houses by Catholic troops, in Paris and throughout France, has been a favorite topic for novelists and film-makers, however Mosse conjures the chaos and concern of these days with recent urgency, as Minou and her household scramble to flee the slaughter.
Mosse’s focus in her historic fiction has at all times been on the untold tales of girls and Minou is an interesting heroine, robust and resourceful, holding her household collectively by insufferable losses and greater than as soon as saving her husband’s life by crafty or bodily braveness. The creator’s nice ability is to weave in depth analysis with the conventions of the journey novel; her villains are enjoyably villainous, her heroines directly distinctive and vulnerably human.
She contains all of the components you’ll anticipate from a historic epic – homicide, treachery, misplaced kids, stolen relics, buried secrets and techniques – however she additionally dramatises the complexities of 16th-century French and Dutch politics, unfamiliar to many English readers, with out weighing it down. This is a compelling story of how nice political upheavals play out in particular person lives and the way unexpectedly anybody can discover themselves searching for sanctuary and the kindness of strangers.
• The City of Tears by Kate Moss is revealed by Mantle (£20). To order a duplicate go to guardianbookshop.com. Delivery costs could apply
