Reviews
KIRKUS REVIEWS:
“Compulsively readable…highly entertaining.”
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE:
Not being a medieval historical fiction buff, I came to “The Fool’s Tale” with certain preconceived and not terribly sanguine notions — there would probably, I thought, be lords, ladies and humor that, though intended to be “bawdy,” instead would end up just being corny. This novel, by Bay Area writer Nicole Galland, however, challenged and mostly foiled my expectations, proving itself a wallop of a first novel that manages to remain entertaining and engaging…” For the rest of this review click here.
LIBRARY JOURNAL REVIEWS:
“Deft, dramatic dialog and pacing.”
BOOKLIST:
“Galland’s first novel is an entertaining saga adeptly weaving together political intrigue and deceit, love that both unifies and divides, loyalty that teeters on treason, and the desire for freedom, which comes with a hefty price.”
THE SOUTHLAND TIMES, New Zealand:
“An easy book to curl up with on the couch …
This is a wonderful debut novel… painstaking research, combined with the craft of the true storyteller combine to produce a novel that will appeal immensely…it is easy to get caught up in the drama and passion…”
PUBLISHER’S WEEKLY:
Screenwriter Galland debuts impressively with a steamy historical romance about a medieval Welsh queen’s love affair with the king’s best friend — his profane, hyperactive royal fool. The year is 1198, and King Maelgwyn (mercifully nicknamed Noble) of Maelienydd has wed the young Englishwoman Isabel Mortimer in hopes of neutralizing her uncle Roger, a powerful baron with designs on Noble’s small kingdom. But almost from their wedding night, the political marriage of Isabel and Noble is a disaster: She is headstrong and tomboyish, ‘far from his ideal’; He is temperamental, tyrannical and unwilling to give up ‘nonconjugal fornication.’ Even worse for Isabel is his unfathomable relationship with the fool Gwirion, whose outrageous pranks and lewd public performances humiliate her. But when Noble goes off to fight Roger Mortimer, a siege on the castle by an opportunistic Welsh prince forces Isabel and Gwirion to confront each other, and to finally acknowledge their traitorous passion. Galland creates memorable characters — particularly Gwirion — who sound authentically regal yet earthy. She strikingly captures the murky Welsh setting and even murkier politics…Readers will relish the energetic emotional back-and-forth of the protagonists’ ceaseless trysting.
Neal Stephenson, author of The Baroque Cycle: Quicksilver, The Confusion, and The System of the World:
“A great yarn… Galland has an exceptional gift for characters and relationships. Readers of all kinds of fiction should find The Fool’s Tale very rewarding.”
David Liss, author of A Spectacle of Corruption:
“In The Fool’s Tale Nicole Galland has created an absolutely engaging historical novel with a charmingly modern sensibility. It is a pleasure to read.”
William Dietrich, author of Hadrian’s Wall :
“Nicole Galland’s The Fool’s Tale creates a vivid twelfth-century world and three unforgettable characters whose lives entwine with war and politics, and climax in an ending as haunting as it is powerful.”
Book of the Month Club :
“Nicole Galland’s The Fool’s Tale creates a vivid twelfth-century world and three unforgettable characters whose lives entwine with war and politics, and climax in an ending as haunting as it is powerful.”