"Brilliantly realized. . . . Ambitious, meticulously researched." --The New York Times Book Review

"Cinematic, thriller-like. . . . Lends suspense right up to the final pages." --The Washington Post

"Unsworth sets out plots and the plots that undermine them with a rare join of head-splitting intricacy, taut suspense, and surreal images of foreboding." --The Boston Globe

"An exotic tale of love, intrigue, betrayal and revenge. . . . Unsworth writes beautifully." --The Seattle Times

"Unsworth succeed[s] triumphantly." --The Guardian (London)

"Part entertainment and part meditation on human venality, drawing moral anxiety and unwitting treachery out of 12th-century Sicily's turbulent inter-racial mistrust. . . . reinvigorates Unsworth's potent themes of violent domination, greed and prejudice straining at the fabric of society." --Financial Times

"The work of a novelist at the height of his powers. . . . Delicately intricate in its construction and psychology, morally resonant and hugely satisfying." --The Observer (London)

"Sparkles with apercus that seems familiar, a clash of religious identity that we quickly recognise and a lingering reflection on values, culture and historical roots that is at the heart of debate today. . . . Unsworth skillfully depicts the loyalties, religiosity and ideologies of a brittle age. . . . As vivid as The Name of the Rose and as accurate in the minutiae." --The Times (London)

"This subtle and gripping historical novel is a triumph from a master of the form: from faith to food, dancing to mosaics, his Sicily shines and sizzles." --The Independent (London)

"[A] beautifully constructed historical romance. . . . [Unsworth's] themes are universal, and their historical setting subtly enhances our understanding of them." --The Spectator (London)

"A very fine novel that twists and turns to reach a compelling climax." --The Scotsman

"Heartrending. . . . Unsworth's subtle prose conjures up an authentically realized medieval world . . . . Can be read either as an exceptional historical novel or a modern parable on the dangers of blind patriotism." --Booklist

"A richly imagined novel of the Middle Ages, filled with questions of race, God and fidelity. . . . Unsworth's luscious history is ripe territory for a dialogue on the ever-present struggle against intolerance, a seemingly inevitable human frailty." --Kirkus Reviews