Matthew Kneale will probably always be best known for the award-winning English Passengers, his exuberant polyphonic novel in 21 voices. Interweaving a 19th-century British seafaring expedition in search of the garden of Eden with a vicious episode in Australian colonial history, it dramatised the clash between faith and science, empathy and self-interest.Two decades on, his new novel tracks another journey: that of a motley group of 13th-century pilgrims, banding together for safety on the road from England towards Rome. A landowner has been ordered to make the trip after fighting over territory with a local abbot, but most are following the prickings of their own conscience or wanderlust, as well as hoping to win reduced time in purgatory. Constance fears her adultery has brought down sickness on her young son; her freeloading sister is along for the ride. Oswald has made a career of performing pilgrimages for the souls of the dead. Margaret wants more souvenir pilgrim badges for her hat. And Tom son of Tom, a poor village lad, hopes “good Saint Pete” will intercede with God on behalf of his dead cat, which has been appearing in his dreams with purgatorial fires licking at its fur. His family are happy enough to see him go; there’ll be more room in the shared bed.
read more of Justine Jordan's review @ The Guardian
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