The Wool Translator

A historical fiction odyssey set in the 15th century, tracing its story from medieval England

to Granada and the Alhambra in the Nasrid Kingdom in southern Iberia.

EUROPE, 1483. Boy meets girl. The boy is Christian, the girl Muslim. What could possibly go right?

Young genius Newt's gift for language turns a curse when he blurts out in Latin about the devil at his parish church. Facing charges of witchery, he flees England to join his father's wool trade. Newt meets a merchant traveling from the Muslim Nasrid Kingdom in Iberia who has a similar problem. His daughter Aisha, a prodigy who sees mathematical patterns in nature, is threatened by warfare waged by the Catholic monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabel.

Newt and Aisha meet under the care of a tutor, Peter, a young priest from the Universities of Paris. Peter enlists them in his scheme to travel to the Nasrid Kingdom to rescue Arabic books from the ravages of war. But Peter does not plan on his youthful charges falling in love, a love taboo to both of their religions. When warfare drives the lovers apart, they vow to reunite at any cost.

Meticulously researched, The Wool Translator won the Jameson Award (UOP Conference on Creative Writing) and was short-listed for the Chaucer Book Award (Chanticleer Reviews).

With appeal to fans of authors such as Ken Follett, Arthur Phillips and Anya Seton, The Wool Translator delves into the nascent days of book publishing, the political intrigues of fifteenth century Europe, and the final conquest of the Muslim Nasrid Kingdom by the armies of the Castilian and Aragonese monarchs, Isabel and Ferdinand.