I have to admit, I'm a bit mystified by the hype. Only 60 pages in, but may pass this to the trash heap. Passages like (loose quote) 'a cathedral is just like a church, but it's where the bishop lives' or 'a cathedral has three parts, a head, shoulders and a body.'
Well, no kidding. Thanks for explaining what a cathedral is. And no, it's not a head, shoulders and body, it's a cross.
And, again, only in the first 60 pages, it seemed like the daughter, Martha, was more like the Kenny character from the Comedy Central series "South Park." I mean, she was almost run down by a war horse and then clubbed by a mutilated thief.
I realize I perhaps have not read enough, but I keep saying to myself "Oh come on, please!"
I hate putting books down, so maybe a few more chapters.
If you want a better book of the same period, a true masterpiece, read 'Narcissus and Goldman" by Hermann Hesse.
It wasn't selected for Oprah's book club, which may be a good thing. Only read one of other book on that list and it was junk. The only other I heard about was a fraud.