Pestilence — Wiliam Owen Roberts

In the 14th century, the Black Plague threatened to destroy Western civilization. This is the backdrop for the two interlocking stories of Pestilence: the saga of a young Arab out to avenge his family by assassinating the king of France, and a small town in rural Wales -- a fulcrum of poverty and ignorance. In a bizarre journey deep into the Boschian landscape of medieval Europe, Salah Ibn al Khatib encounters whores, rogues, clergymen, and kings; however, something ominous dogs his every footstep -- the plague. Lust, violence, disease, and despair are the elements of this historical fantasy written with the flair of Salman Rushdie. Pestilence, originally written in Welsh, reverberates with the deeper conflict between the West and Islam, turning on its head the notion that Europe once stood as the world's bastion of civilization.