The Book of Boy (2018) is a young adult novel by Catherine Gilbert Murdock. Murdock made a name for herself with her debut children’s novel Dairy Queen (2006). The Book of Boy is set in the middle ages in the Holy Year of 1350, a year in which hundreds of pilgrims went to Rome in the wake of the bubonic plague. This coincided with Avignon Papacy, a period of several decades in the fourteenth century when the Popes resided in Avignon owing to the hospitality French Popes encountered in Rome. It is against this backdrop that Boy narrates his story. Though Boy is awkward, shy, self-conscious, and socially ostracized owing to his hunchback, he proves to be truly one-of-a-kind. Boy lives on a manor in France under the tutelage of Cook, a harsh mistress who inherited the estate when the master suffered an injury to the head that left him an invalid. The mistress of the house and their three children succumbed to the bubonic plague. Boy is climbing tree branches to pick apples when he encounters a traveler who looks like a pilgrim. This curious pilgrim asks Cook if he may take Boy with him as a servant. Readily perceiving Cook's lack of sincere concern for Boy, the pilgrim, whose name is Secundus, tells her that he is going to Saint-Peter’s-Step. He not only asks for Boy to attend him but also for a donation. Cook reluctantly gives a silver cup and asks them to pray for her and her master-turned-husband, Sir Jacques. In their travels, Secundus explains how he found the rib of St. Peter in a palace in France. The rib burned when he touched it, and it now sits in a sack, which Boy carries strapped to his hump. Secundus is on a quest for seven relics that will save him: rib, tooth, thumb, shin, dust, skull, and tomb. He comforts himself by talking to the animals (dogs, goats, and horses) he encounters on route. In the elaborate church at Saint Peter’s Step, guards attend to a shoe allegedly belonging to St. Peter. A group of brigands storms the church looking for the shoe. Boy’s first thought is to save a baby he sees inside the church. Boy climbs to a window and Secundus throws the baby to him. The baby’s mother is very grateful, and Boy proud of himself. Secundus announces that he is going to Rome and that their next stop is the Castle of Gold. He reveals that he has purloined the shoe from the church in Saint Peter’s Step. Secundus approaches an abbot at the monastery of Saint Peter’s Mount, trading the shoe for a tooth—the next relic he needs. Later, Secundus reluctantly purchases a toe from a man selling relics on the street. Secundus explains that they will next steal a veil said to have belonged to a weeping woman whose prayers for fertility were granted. Secundus will trade this veil to a lady possessed of a special sword bearing the thumb of St. Peter in its hilt. A pack of hounds rips off Boy’s clothing, revealing his hump. Secundus, seeing this hump, suspects that Boy is an angel. Secundus’s series of questions reveal that Boy does not drink or urinate. Secundus says that he himself died a thousand years ago and escaped hell. He is trying to get to heaven to see his dead wife and child. Secundus and Boy take a boat into Avignon. Boy waits for Secundus in an inn. As he cleans his hump, he notices that it has feathers. Boy begins to suspect he is, in fact, an angel. When Secundus comes back for Boy, a mysterious man brings them into a room where Secundus expects to find the fourth relic, but it is a trap. A dog tells Boy to run and the two escape. Secundus and Boy head for Rome on a ship. Secundus tells the sailors how he escaped hell during the pestilence when everyone so busy, he stole the key (which unlocks all locks) to hell’s gates. In Rome, Secundus seeks the dust of St. Peter within the grave of St. Paul. He leaves Boy in an abandoned building. Boy decides to use his wings to escape confinement. He meets an angry Secundus within the catacombs of St. Paul. Secundus insists that Boy enter the coffin to retrieve the sought-after dust. In so doing, Boy becomes trapped in the coffin. Boy remains here awhile; he has visions of St. Peter with a gray beard and St. Paul with a red one. Boy preens himself and his wings continue to grow. Eventually, Boy hears the voice of Secundus, who comes to open the tomb. Boy's wings become violet, blue, gold, and red. Secundus comments that Boy’s hump is gone. Secundus and Boy continue onward to Rome. Boy’s communication with animals procures a donkey to carry the wounded Secundus. When they finally touch St. Peter’s tomb, Secundus disappears. Boy wanders through the streets, questioning whether he is now a boy or an angel. He hears Secundus’s voice telling him that he is both; he is a boy to those who mean him harm, but an angel in his heart. Boy travels back to the manor where he tolerates Cook and gives Sir Jacques hope of seeing his family at the marble gates of heaven. The protagonist’s name, “Boy,” is a testament to the feeling of anonymity spawned by the trackless Middle Age landscape. Boy’s French background underscores the antagonism between France and Rome during the Middle Ages. The novel creatively portrays for young readers a unique era in which religious fervor ran high, relics promoted feverish excitement, and the urban streets were confused, threatening, and anything but boring.

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Catherine Gilbert Murdock

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The Book of Boy

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