The Book of Days

"I’d advise readers to sit with this book, sit and breathe, as we might sit and breathe with a Book of Hours. The story is tense and full-bodied – you want to know what happens. At the same time, with the skill of a weaver, Francesca Kay depicts the passing seasons, both natural and liturgical, without fanfare but with much beauty. Drawn into the little rural community, the reader also witnesses the building of a chantry, that is, a chapel endowed by the founder to pray for his or her soul, or the souls of others ‘in perpetuum.’ The poignancy of building a chantry in the religiously perilous sixteenth century! The culture shock is, I suppose, that despite many upheavals, religious faith underpinned every facet of life in western Christendom until, say, the scientific discoveries and growing religious scepticism of the late nineteenth century. For twenty-first century readers, whose faith in everything is shaken on a daily basis, it’s almost impossible to imagine such entrenched certainties. Through prose that glints like a stained-glass window, Francesca Kay offers a glimpse of that vanished world. In novel terms, this may be as near to the sixteenth century as we’re ever going to get."