Historical Fiction -- 4 1/2 stars
In 13th Century Hagenburg, Germany, a cathedral is being built. It will be magnificent--if politics, economics, differing factions within the church, and a rising merchant class can stay out of the way. When two young shepherds arrive in Hagenburg to pay their family's yearly taxes, they are unprepared for this new world where religion takes a back seat to political infighting, where bishoprics are for sale, and the church is just another commodity to be exploited. One brother has a gift for art, the other a talent for money. Hagenburg is open at their feet. ----- If you enjoy complicated epics filled with intrigue, you'll love this book. While the cathedral remains the glue that connects the myriad subplots, the building itself is not the central focus. Instead it is the people--rich and poor, Christian and Jew, lay citizen and religious--who fill the pages with life. There are times when the story is difficult to follow--jumping from one period to another is a common enough literary device, but Mr. Hopkins twists it, jumping ahead of a character's story without explanation only to then move his narrative to another subplot before backtracking to fill in the missing pieces. In the end, all the fragments fit together in a masterpiece of planning and execution.
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