Castle of Kings, The - Hardcover

Pötzsch, Oliver

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0544319516 ISBN 13: 9780544319516

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016

Synopsis

In 1524, in what is now Germany, hundreds of thousands of peasants revolted against the harsh treatment of their aristocratic overlords. Agnes is the daughter of one of these overlords, but she is not a typical sixteenth-century girl, refusing to wear dresses and spending more time with her pet falcon than potential suitors. There is only one suitor she is interested in: Mathis, a childhood friend who she can never marry due to his low birth status. But when a rogue knight attacks Agnes and Mathis shoots the knight to save her, the two are forced to go on the run together, into the midst of the raging Peasants' War. Over the next two years, as Agnes and Mathis travel the countryside, they are each captured by and escape from various factions of the war, participate in massive battles, make new friends both noble and peasant, and fall in love. Meanwhile, Agnes's falcon finds a mysterious ring, and Agnes begins having strange, but seemingly meaningful dreams. Dreams that lead the two lovers to revelations about their place in the world and in the emerging German states. With The Castle of Kings, Oliver Potzsch has written a historical yarn that calls to mind Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth and Bernard Cornwell's Agincourt.

About this title

Review

"Mr. Pötzsch is the author of a sequence of five novels, collectively known as 'The Hangman's Daughter, ' which have sold half a million copies in English translation. 'The Castle of Kings' is likely to enjoy similar success--and deserves it . . . The war scenes are grimly realistic, and the narration gripping . . . The author makes the fantastical elements work by harnessing them to the grim reality of the Peasants' War, setting his far-fetched romance in an utterly convincing world of economic hardship, social strife and religious and political uncertainty. Oliver Pötzsch recognizes that the way to make the extraordinary credible is to anchor it in a thoroughly imagined depiction of real historical times." -- The Wall Street Journal

"Combine Princess Bride with Germanic history circa 1500, add a dash of Lord of the Rings, and there's a week of good fun . . ." -- Kirkus Reviews

From the Back Cover

Praise for Oliver Potzsch

I loved every page, character, and plot twist of The Hangman s Daughter, an inventive historical novel about a seventeenth-century hangman s quest to save a witch from himself. Scott Turow

Swift and sure, compelling as any conspiracy theory, persuasive as any spasm of paranoia, The Dark Monk grips you at the base of your skull and doesn t let go. Gregory Maguire, author of Wicked and Out of Oz

Oliver Potzsch has brought to life the heady smells and tastes, the true reality of an era we ve never seen quite like this before. The hangman Jakob and his feisty daughter Magdalena are characters we will want to root for in many books to come. Katherine Neville, best-selling author of The Eight and The Magic Circle

In this subtle, meticulously crafted story, every word is a possible clue, and the characters are so engaging that it s impossible not to get involved in trying to help them figure the riddle out. Oprah.com

Oliver Potzsch has hatched a narrative redolent of Alfred Hitchcock s best romantic thrillers, replete with mindboggling ciphers, distinctive villains, secret societies (exotic yet historically accurate), and other pleasures both sensual and cerebral. James Morrow, author of The Last Witchfinder
"

About this edition

• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 0544319516
• ISBN 13: 9780544319516
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 800