Table of Contents
More Praise for the #1 International Bestseller
CATHEDRAL OF THE SEA
"The passion and heartache, as well as the grit and grime, of medieval Spain come alive in ... this epic novel .... The saga is filled with colorful characters .... The backdrop is always dramatic ... a fantastic fourteenth-century fresco.”
—USA
Today
“[It’s] soap opera on a grand scale, made believable and enthralling by the inclusion of the commonplace brutalities and small compassions of life in medieval Barcelona. Watching Arnau’s rise from literal rags to riches is frequently like watching a series of train wrecks; you’re horrified but can’t look away ....[The] plot ... is so beautifully structured that the last sixty pages detonate like a string of firecrackers ....[The] prose is powerful .... Falcones has an eye for the singular, telling detail, and ... his characters are ... believable ... a riveting story.”
—The Washington Post
“[An] absorbing epic ... Falcones’s rich portrait of medieval society is fascinating.”
—
Publishers Weekly
“[A] sprawling medieval family saga.”
—
Kirkus Reviews
“With
Cathedral of the Sea,
Ildefonso Falcones dethrones Eduardo Mendoza and Arturo Pérez-Reverte ... and has become Spain’s new Dan Brown.”
—
El Mundo
“A new Ken Follett is born!”
—ADP
(Spain)
New American Library
Published by New American Library, a division of
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Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices:
80 Strand, London WC2R oRL, England
Published by New American Library, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
Previously published in a Dutton edition.
First New American Library Printing, April 2009
Copyright © Ildefonso Falcones de Sierra, 2006
Translation copyright © Nick Caistor, 2008
Images on page 1, 2, 51, 52, 217, 218, 453, 454 courtesy of Liesbeth Vries
Map © Sergi Parreño
All rights reserved
eISBN : 978-1-440-63041-5
Falcones de Sterra, Ildefonao, 1959-
[Catedral de la mar. English]
Cathedral of the sea/by Ildefonso Falcones.
p. cm.
eISBN : 978-1-440-63041-5
I. Title
PQ6656.A375C3813 2008
863.,64—dc22 2007046077
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To Carmen
Barcelona in the 14th Century
PART ONE
Chained to the Land