Overview

In 1524, in what is now Germany, hundreds of thousands of peasants revolt against the harsh treatment by their aristocratic overlords. Agnes, the daughter of one of these overlords, is not a typical sixteenth-century girl. She refuses to wear dresses and spends more time with her pet falcon than she does in trying to attract potential suitors. In fact, there is only one man who interests her: Mathis, a childhood friend, whom she can never marry because of his lowly birth. But the situation changes dramatically when a rogue knight attacks Agnes, Mathis shoots the knight to save her life, and the two are forced to go on the run together, into the midst of the raging peasants' war. Over the next two years, as Agnes and Mathis travel the countryside, are each captured by and escape from various factions of the war, participate in massive battles, and make new friends both noble and peasant, they also, of course, fall in love. Meanwhile, Agnes' falcon finds a mysterious ring, and Agnes begins having strange dreams that lead the two lovers to revelations about their place in the world and in the emerging German states. With The Castle of Kings, Oliver Potzsch has written a historical epic that calls to mind Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth and Bernard Cornwell's Agincourt.

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9781504723145

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The main story of Trifels Castle and the German Peasants' War, with appearances by a few historical figures and accurate details of medieval life and weaponry, is quite fascinating...The story reads like Princess Bride with serious pirates, or The Count of Monte Cristo meets Snow White...Entertaining. -- Booklist

Author Information

Oliver Potzsch, born in 1970, he has worked for years as a scriptwriter for Bavarian television in Germany. He is a descendant of one of Bavaria's leading dynasties of executioners. He is the author of the bestselling Hangman's Daughter historical fiction series, which has sold over half a million copies in English. Anthea Bell is the recipient of the Schlegel Tieck Prize for translation from German, the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, the Helen and Kurt Wolff Prize in 2002 for the translation of W. G. Sebald's Austerlitz, and the 2003 Austrian State Prize for Literary Translation. Kate Reading is an Audie Award-winning narrator and has received dozens of Earphones Awards. She has been named by AudioFile magazine as a Voice of the Century, as well as the Best Voice in Science Fiction & Fantasy in 2008 and 2009 and Best Voice in Biography & Culture in 2010. She is also a theater actor in the Washington, DC, area and has been a member of the Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company since 1987. Her work onstage has been recognized by the Helen Hayes Awards Society, among others.

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