Prisoner of the inquisition
Saulo wants revenge: to him, the murder of his enemies is quite justified, and he sets about the task of killing Zarita and her family with cold efficiency. A few more seconds and he might have got free; found another alleyway or a cliff path to make his escape. For in the summer of , before the Holy Inquisition brought fear and suspicion to our town, I did not glance constantly around me when I went about my business. Breslin manipulates her material with a novelist's rather than a historian's hand, and does not balk at getting as much dramatic leverage as she can from this dark moment in Spain's history. I was suddenly aware that I was alone with this ruffian inside the empty church. Extract Chapter One — Zarita We did not see the man who followed behind us. The smell of him and the contact of his fingers, with their roughened skin and broken fingernails, repelled me. I thought my father had seen me but he veered away to the right, in the direction of a staircase going down to the sea. He stood in the darkness, this man, and watched me as I walked towards the statue of the Virgin. After Saulo begins to put his vengeance into action, Zarita retreats to a nunnery founded by her aunt Beatriz.Then, when I opened my purse to take out some money for an offering, he darted forward. The plot is well-crafted and expertly paced with tension rising as the purposes of the inquisition come to light. Extract Chapter One — Zarita We did not see the man who followed behind us.
Breslin's writing is expertly paced, never self-indulgent or pretentious, and it works hard to create a viable fictional world. My father would have been distressed had he found out that I sometimes resorted to begging for bread. She would be going to the shrine of the Virgin Mary, which was inside the church on the cliff overlooking the sea. Within the first few pages a woman is burned at the stake, a man is unjustly accused and hanged, his young son only just escapes the same fate and a woman dies in childbirth. She made to pull off her veil but he stayed her hand. In his anger he steps forth and challenges the magistrate. He took his role as my protector very seriously, pulling his face into a frown and giving severe looks to every passer-by. He waited behind a pillar while I lifted my veil, lit a candle and knelt to pray. A town magistrate can have a traitor executed by a military officer without formal trial. But he never forgets that he has sworn vengeance for his parents' deaths, and when circumstances give him both his freedom and a fortune, he goes back to Las Conchas to kill the magistrate and his family. I happened to be anxious about something when I started to read Prisoner of the Inquisition, a detail I only mention because I feared I might be too distracted to give the book the attention it deserved. There is a terrific scene featuring the Grand Inquisitor… There is real jeopardy here, and terrible injustice, and I am certain that the social and moral aspects of this story will speak strongly to a teenage readership. Saulo also bonds with the Captain and finds out that he has a natural aptitude for sailing. Then, when I opened my purse to take out some money for an offering, he darted forward. People act for selfish or twisted motives, … But the characters in this inspiring book are also capable of great sacrifices for love and for family, and… takes on enormous grandeur and significance.I pulled my veil down over my face and took a step back. Whilst she is in the church, she is approached by a beggar. Saulo is the son of the beggar hanged by Zarita's father.
My heart thudded in my chest. Many things are not what they first seem in this book. A simple-minded servant falls into their net, and as a result is brutally tortured.
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I shrieked in alarm. A few more seconds and he might have got free; found another alleyway or a cliff path to make his escape. Saulo wants revenge: to him, the murder of his enemies is quite justified, and he sets about the task of killing Zarita and her family with cold efficiency. But this is no horror story, and none of the violence is gratuitous: this is quite simply the world of fifteenth century Spain. I thought my father had seen me but he veered away to the right, in the direction of a staircase going down to the sea. She seemed to be about my age, with the most beautiful long black hair caught up in swirls and curls with fine tortoiseshell combs. There is a terrific scene featuring the Grand Inquisitor and some interesting if admittedly less convincing ones that introduce a certain Christopher Columbus. The magistrate condemns him to death too but Zarita begs for his life and the magistrate spares him. It is quite remarkable. He orders the soldiers to give him over as a slave on a boat and thus Saulo begins a hard life at sea.This is a tale of personal revenge, of courage and betrayal, of the power of romantic and familial love, of social inequality and religious intolerance.
But he is at the same time a warm and caring young man, who more than once risked his life to save his companions on the cargo ship, and the two first-person accounts allow the reader to better understand that morality was seen differently in the past.
Many things are not what they first seem in this book.
