In the year 999, when Ben Attar, a Moroccan Jewish merchant, takes a second wife, he commits an act whose unforeseen consequences will forever alter his family, his relationships, his business-his life. In an attempt to forestall conflict and advance his business interests at the same time, Ben Attar undertakes his annual journey to Europe with both his first wife and his new wife. The trip is the beginning of a profound human drama whose moral conflicts...

"In a village in a medieval fiefdom buffeted by natural disasters, a motherless shepherd boy finds himself the unlikely pivot of a power struggle that puts all manner of faith to a savage test, in a spellbinding novel that represents Ottessa Moshfegh's most exciting leap yet. Little Marek, the abused and delusional son of the village shepherd, never knew his mother; his father told him she died in childbirth. One of life's few consolations for Marek...

Chaucer's work begins at the Tabard Inn in Southwark, England, where a group of pilgrims have assembled on their way to Canterbury. Harry Bailly, the innkeeper, suggests a contest: whoever tells the best tale will win a supper when they reach Canterbury.

In Ireland in the Middle Ages, young Brother Cuthbert, known for making mistakes and giving up easily, is chosen through a miscommunication to serve as scribe for an illuminated manuscript of the Nativity story, through which the Abbot hopes to make the monastery famous.

Frederick, a peasant farmer's son who dreams of earning a living using his God-given talent as a woodcarver, falls in love with Adela, a duke's daughter who yearns to prove herself as an artist. Includes discussion questions. Adela, youngest daughter of Duke Wilhelm of Hagenheim, is never allowed outside of the castle walls. She sneaks away one day to the market disguised as a peasant, and meets a poor farmer with a kind heart. Frederick earns the...

In fourteenth-century Norway, the plague has destroyed Rype's entire village, and as the sole survivor, she embarks on a sweeping adventure across Europe with the son of an English ship captain and a band of troubadours in search of a brighter future and a new home.

"In 1210 Scotland, when invading knights capture 12-year-old Drest's father, the Mad Wolf of the North, and her beloved brothers who make up his fearsome war-band, she sets off to rescue them from the castle prison, taking along a wounded knight as her captive to trade for her family's freedom"--