Pestilence

Pestilence is a witty satire in the tradition of Chaucer, Boccacio, and Voltaire. In a vivid, picaresque narrative, Roberts contrasts the impoverishment and restrictions of life in a remote medieval Welsh community with the elegance and refinement of Cairo's Madrasa Academy, from which the young student Salah Ibn al Khatib is sent on a secret mission of revenge into the dark and Boschian heart of Europe. With im goes something implacable and murderous: pestilence. During his bizarre and exotic journeys, he encounters whores and rogues, popes and priests, kings and queens. In rural Wales, on the very edge of civilization, grinding poverty, hunger, superstition, and the shackles of feudalism bind peasant, priest, and even the Lady of the Manor. This black, comic novel enacts a dance of death in its searching inquiry into the nature of medieval life.