The Owl Killers

The setting for this novel is a fictional English village named Ulewic. During 1321-22, the village is struggling with a number of natural and supernatural forces. The villagers' lives are shadowed by the Owl Masters and haunted by the Owlman who leaves death and destruction in his wake. The novel centres on a beguinage, a religious community of women, originally from Bruges and newly established outside the village. The tensions between the beguinage, the village priest and the townspeople themselves build through ignorance, fear, envy and are fuelled by illness, natural disaster and manipulation. The narrators include a number of different characters, alternating throughout the story and each with their own perspective of events. For this novel, this works particularly well because of the combination of pagan and Christian beliefs, of belief in the supernatural and superstition. The narrators include: the Servant Martha (the leader of the beguins), the teenaged Agatha/Osmanna (the cast out daughter of Ulewic's most powerful man who is accepted into the beguinage); Father Ulfrid (the village priest) and a village child. I enjoyed this novel. I liked some characters, detested others and was fascinated by the concept of beguinage. This novel is of the Dark Ages in both time and setting, but some aspects transcend the passage of time. Jennifer Cameron-Smith

Karen Maitland's "The Owl Killers" takes place in 1321, in Ulewic, a poor and benighted village "crouched with its back to the forest" in a desolate corner of England. Ulewic is ruled by the hypocritical and dictatorial Robert D'Acaster and its so-called spiritual leader is Father Ulfrid, a weak-willed, selfish, and cowardly priest. The residents eke out a hardscrabble living and death is their constant companion. Yet the church demands tithes even from the impoverished, and D'Acaster expects his underlings to regularly hand over a portion of their meager income. The only bright spot is the beguinage, a community of courageous and formidable women, who farm, trade, treat the sick, feed the poor, and pray. They are not nuns, although they vow to remain celibate as long as they are part of the collective. Led by Servant Martha, the members of the beguinage are an altruistic group of remarkable females who support themselves and are committed to good works. Unfortunately, they have settled near a cursed place that is soon to be brought low by a series of calamities, including flood and famine. The gullible villagers are egged on by D'Acaster and Father Ulfrid to turn against their main benefactors--the beguines--whom they blame for their misfortunes. Maitland is a brilliant storyteller who evokes the bleak mood of the dark ages with stunning authenticity. One of the greatest tributes one can give to a work of historical fiction is that it transports the reader to another time and place so completely that the present melts away. "The Owl Killers" takes us back to an era when life was cheap, food was scarce, the church was a power to be reckoned with, and a common laborer was fortunate to survive with his family intact from one year to the next. The author has created a well-constructed and intricate narrative of awesome power, populated by a large and memorable cast. In the beguinage we meet Servant Martha, a stoic and strong leader who brooks no nonsense from anyone; Healing Martha, whose kindness and ability to treat a variety of ailments make her both beloved and indispensible; Beatrice, who would like to be a "Martha" (one of the leaders), but is tainted by soul-destroying bitterness; and Agatha, the youngest of Robert's daughters, a rebel who is destined to play a pivotal role in the proceedings. Philip D'Acaster is Lord Robert's licentious, cruel, and self-serving nephew; he is every bit as evil as his malevolent uncle. The story is told from alternating viewpoints, resulting in a rich and smoothly blended narrative. Although the darkness is relieved by occasional passages of understated humor, the tale grows in intensity as it proceeds to its climactic conclusion. "The Owl Killers" occurs during a period of unrest, Maitland informs us in her excellent historical notes. "Significant and rapid climate changes" led to "widespread droughts, flooding, and crop failure." These catastrophes bred panic, lawlessness, a reversio

I don't think I've ever read anything quite like The Owl Killers. Set in a fictional English village but based on a real sociological phenomenon of the era, the tale is vivid in its depiction of the harsh realities of its time. That, of course, means this is not the book for anyone who is looking for bodice-ripping Arthurian fantasy, but it's perfect for historical fiction fans. Maitland has a terrific knack for subtle character development and interpersonal tension, and the tale she tells leaves us with the unsettling possibility that human nature hasn't changed all that much in 700 years. Bad harvests, severe economic inequalities, an almost comically weak civic leader, an even more comically evil village bigwig, and an all-female community whose members dare to be different - it's a surefire recipe for tension, and this story has that from cover to cover. As a series of seemingly minor incidents builds to a desperate situation in which tragedy is all but inevitable, the women of the outsider community mostly do their part to ease the tension and help the villagers, as well as welcoming other outsiders who need their help - and are of course repaid with suspicion and abuse, some of it from within their own ranks. In part because the characters are well-drawn, the story can be slightly predictable at times; but that doesn't make it any less enjoyable. If anything, I was that much more drawn into the tale as I hoped the women could overcome the village's mob mentality and Father Ulfrid's miserably weak "leadership", not to mention hoping the Owl Masters' reign of terror would be broken, no matter how remote those possibilities seemed. There are also a number of supernatural-flavored subplots throughout the tale to keep the reader guessing just what is underfoot. This is about as pure good-vs-evil as it gets. Highly recommended!

Maitland's second novel has a healthy dose of all the things that make a book worth your time. Folklore, mystery, history, all combine to bring the rigid, oppressive, superstitious-steeped time period to glorious life. It's never easy to 'buck the system' and in Medieval times it could be down-right deadly, as the Beguines learned. The many interesting, complex characters will elicit sympathy, disgust, anger, or compassion and you'll remember them long after you finish the final page. I hope Karen Maitland is hard at work on her third novel; I'm patiently waiting.

Set in the English village of Ulewic (fictional, but placed somewhere near Norwich) in 1321-22, The Owl Killers is the story of a village fighting against forces both known and unknown. At the story's center is the town's beguinage, a community of women originally from Bruges who came to England to lead lives independent of marriage or the convent. When the town suffers from flood and plague, and the women are unaffected, the people in the town start to suspect them of harboring a holy relic. Meanwhile, the village is controlled by a group of men called the Owl Masters and haunted by the specter of the Owlman, who delivers nothing but death and destructionto the places and people he visits. The story is narrated by a number of characters, including the beguinage's leader, Servant Martha; the angry and bitter beguine named Beatrice; the town's self-righteous priest, Father Ulfrid; Osmanna, daughter of the lord of the manor who is sheltered by the beguines; and one of the village children. The novel contains a curious and intriguing combination of pagan belief and Christianity, witchcraft and superstition. I don't normally read books with supernatural themes, but The Owl Killers grabbed me from page one and refused to let me go. One of my favorite things about this book is the characters; each narrator has their own strong, unique voice (my favorite was the sensible, practical Servant Martha). Maitland shows the middle ages as they really were, and she does so perfectly. Maitland delivers the symbolism a little heavy-handedly (of the "a candle blows out and someone dies" variety), but I nevertheless enjoyed this novel. Read it, and you'll never feel the same way about owls or men in masks again.