"In one miraculous year he had been given both a commission to match his ambition and a son. But now Simon was learning that things longed for, once held in the hand, do not always match the picture nurtured in the mind."
Alis Hawkins' novel Testament is about a college - part of the medieval city of Salster - both at the time of its foundation in the fourteenth century, and as it faces a financial crisis and a threat to its autonomy in the present day. The master mason who built it, Simon of Kineton, his family and his patron, bring to life the early period, while the modern story is centred on the college's marketing manager Damia Miller. The two plots unfold in parallel, their junction being the discovery of a strange mural which will be the key to understanding events of the past and will help secure the venerable institution's future. The mural's subject is Simon's crippled son, Toby, "...the bag of twitching bones and wandering wits" as his father describes him and from whom the college takes its present day nickname. But why? What was so significant about Toby's life that he should have been remembered in this way?
That's a brief outline of what is an ambitious and complex story, one whose intricacy and wealth of detail could have been its downfall but happily was not! It's a long book, and yet I read it in no time at all, so gripping were both its strands. Alis Hawkins has done a terrific job of producing a coherent whole, beautifully balanced and made real. I found the historical side fascinating, while the twenty first century college, its political wranglings, its staff and students, were equally well-realised. If I have a quibble it's with over-emphasis on matching the two halves of the story, and reliance on coincidence such as the discovery of all-important archival papers, while Toby's fate pushed credibility, I felt, (nor did I fully understand the Fairings/Obit scenes!), but none of that was enough to detract from what for me was a very enjoyable read indeed.
What did you think of the book?
(PS. In case you missed it, Testament's 'books and cakes' post is here).
