The horrors of Feudalism are depicted in all their evil by Ildefonso Falcones in his tale:  CATHEDRAL OF THE SEA.  I remember studying this period of history in school but it did not carry the force that reading about it as it happened in this dramatic historic novel had.
 
Beginning in the year 1320, the story moves in rapid action showing how the people of that time in Spain survived their struggles and even overcame inhuman odds to prosper.  The central family of Estanyol will experience through three generations the lot of peasants with all the cruelty it carried.  It will be in the lifetime of Arnau, the grandson of Madcap Estanyol, that fortune enters the family with a new set of demands.
 
I found the skill of Falcones to twist his characters around in such circumstances to cover the varied and multiple historic events fascinating.  We experience famine, wars, plague, problems within the church, problems within the civil government, concerns about Jews, the role of prostitution and many more real accounts of living during the years 1320 through 1384.
 
The one unifying theme is building the magnificent cathedral which takes over fifty years.  No matter how far the plot travels away from this huge effort, it always returns to bring the reader up-to-date on the building progress.  Until, at last, we celebrate its joyous completion.

Checkout Cathedral of the Sea by Ildefonso Falcones de Sierra.
 
Reviewed By Mary Lou Stein