The Second Sleep

Book excerpt: All civilizations consider themselves invulnerable; history warns us that none is. From the international bestselling author of Fatherland and Munich, a gripping mystery and a fascinating cautionary tale. 1468. A young priest, Christopher Fairfax, arrives in a remote English village to conduct the funeral of his predecessor. The land around is strewn with ancient artefacts--coins, fragments of glass, human bones--which the old parson used to collect. Did his obsession with the past lead to his death? As Fairfax is drawn more deeply into the isolated community, everything he believes--about himself, his faith and the history of his world--is tested to destruction.