Cathedral of the Sea - A Novel

A masterful epic of love, war, treason, plague, famine, witchcraft, anti-Semitism and the Inquisition 14th-century Spain, the medieval city of Barcelona is enjoying a golden age of prosperity. Its humblest inhabitants are building, stone by stone, a magnificent church to overlook their harbour. This is the Cathedral of the Sea: a church to be built for the people by the people. In its shadow, Arnau, a young serf on the run from his feudal lord, struggles to earn his freedom. After famine, plague and thwarted love, Arnau's fortunes begin to turn when King Pedro makes him a baron as a reward for his courage in battle. But he is also forced to marry Eleonor, a ward of the King whom he does not love. His newfound status excites jealousy from his friends who plot his downfall with devastating consequences. Arnau's journey from slave to nobleman is the story of a struggle between good and evil that will turn Church against State and brother against brother ...

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An unforgettable fresco of a golden age in fourteenth-century Barcelona, Cathedral of the Sea is a thrilling historical novel of friendship and revenge, plague and hope, love and war.

Arnau Estanyol arrives in Barcelona to find a city dominated by the construction of the city's great pride-the cathedral of Santa Maria del Mar-and by its shame, the deadly Inquisition. As a young man, Arnau joins the powerful guild of stoneworkers and helps to build the church with his own hands, while his best friend and adopted brother Joanet studies to become a priest.

With time, Arnau prospers and falls secretly in love with a forbidden woman. But when he is betrayed and hauled before the Inquisitor, he finds himself face-to-face with Joanet. Will he lose his life just as his beloved Cathedral of the Sea is finally completed, or will his brother save him?

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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...This epic novel...twists and turns through war, women and the Spanish Inquisition...[A] saga filled with colorful characters...[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