To find the manuscript, wily bureaucrat Geoffrey Chaucer turns to fellow poet John Gower, a professional trader in information with connections high and low.Gower discovers that the book and incriminating evidence about its author have fallen into the unwitting hands of innocents, who will be drawn into a conspiracy that reaches from the king's court to London's slums and stews-and potentially implicates Gower's own son.

Only a few powerful men know that the cryptic lines derive from a 'burnable book,' a seditious work that threatens the stability of the realm. Songs are heard across London-catchy verses said to originate from an ancient book that prophesies the ends of England's kings-and among the book's predictions is Richard's assassination. Surrounded by ruthless courtiers-including his powerful uncle, John of Gaunt, and Gaunt's artful mistress, Katherine Swynford-England's young king, Richard II, is in mortal peril. (Mar.In Chaucer's London, betrayal, murder, and intrigue swirl around the existence of a prophetic book that foretells the deaths of England's kingsLondon, 1385. Agent: Helen Heller, Helen Heller Agency (Canada).

Though the period’s unfamiliar terms and figures can be confusing, the intricate plot, sharp characterizations, and sweeping depiction of medieval England make this a memorable fiction debut. For the first time, he finds himself at the mercy of other men’s secrets, rather than in control of them. As treasonous texts begin to inflame an already dissatisfied populace, Gower realizes that the king, the book’s possessor, and his friend Chaucer are in danger, and his own son is threatened as well. Gower discovers that the book has been stolen from Westminster by an unidentified woman, later murdered dying, she gave it to a common prostitute, who is now hiding it in London. In 1385, Geoffrey Chaucer asks fellow poet and dealer in information, John Gower, to find a cryptic manuscript that predicts specifically how the current monarch, Richard II, will be assassinated. MedievalistHolsinger (Neomedievalism, Neoconservatism, and the War on Terror) delivers a first novel whose zest, breadth, and color evoke The Canterbury Tales.

A burnable book by bruce holsinger