The Leper’s Companions | The Leper’s Companions

At a glance:

Author: Julia Blackburn
First Published: 1999
Type of Work: Novel
Time of Work: 1410
Setting: Suffolk coast, England
Principal Characters: The narrator, The leper, The priest, The shoemaker and his wife, Sally, Mary
Genres: Long fiction
Subjects: Folkloric or magical people, Villages, Shoes or shoemakers, Fifteenth century, Miracles, Bereavement or grief, Pilgrims or pilgrimages, Priests, Leprosy, Great Britain, Mermaids or mermen
Locales: Suffolk, England

The novel opens elliptically with a woman who suffers the death of a beloved male and feels completely at a loss to continue with her old life. She longs to voyage to some distant land, take up residence there, and erase time, memory, and pain, but she cannot. Instead, she is drawn to a neighboring village that is conspicuous for its quiet and emptiness, and she makes mental visits to the place. Without explanation, she suddenly finds herself transported back to the year 1410 and a world utterly foreign to hers. She remains there for more than a year.

The Leper’s Companions | The Leper’s Companions

At a glance:

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