The Castle of Kings - Hardcover

In 1524, in what is now Germany, hundreds of thousands of peasants revolted against the harsh treatment they suffered at the hands of their aristocratic overlords. Agnes is the daughter of one of these overlords, but she is not a typical sixteenth-century girl, refusing to wear dresses and spending more time with her pet falcon than potential suitors. There is only one suitor she is interested in: Mathis, a childhood friend whom she can never marry because he is a commoner, the son of a smith. Though his knowledge of the new trade of gunsmithing gains Mathis a bit of prestige, it is not the sort that will bring money to Agnes’s struggling father. As they grow up amidst the turmoil of what becomes the Peasants’ War, it begins to seem that they are simply destined to be apart.

Over the next two years, Agnes and Mathis travel the countryside, tossed about by the war. They are each captured by and escape from various factions, participate in massive battles, make new friends both noble and peasant, and fall in love. Meanwhile, Agnes’s falcon finds a mysterious ring, and Agnes begins having strange but seemingly meaningful dreams. Dreams that lead the two lovers to revelations about their place in the world and in the emerging German states. With The Castle of Kings, Oliver Pötzsch has written a historical yarn that calls to mind Ken Follett’s The Pillars of the Earth and Bernard Cornwell’s Agincourt.
 

Praise for Oliver Pötzsch
 
“I loved every page, character, and plot twist of The Hangman’s Daughter, an inventive historical novel about a seventeenth-century hangman’s quest to save a witch—from himself.” — Scott Turow
 
“Swift and sure, compelling as any conspiracy theory, persuasive as any spasm of paranoia, The Dark Monk grips you at the base of your skull and doesn’t let go.” — Gregory Maguire, author of Wicked and Out of Oz
 
“Oliver Pötzsch has brought to life the heady smells and tastes, the true reality of an era we’ve never seen quite like this before. The hangman Jakob and his feisty daughter Magdalena are characters we will want to root for in many books to come.” — Katherine Neville, best-selling author of The Eight and The Magic Circle
 
“In this subtle, meticulously crafted story, every word is a possible clue, and the characters are so engaging that it’s impossible not to get involved in trying to help them figure the riddle out.” — Oprah.com
 
“Oliver Pötzsch has hatched a narrative redolent of Alfred Hitchcock’s best romantic thrillers, replete with mindboggling ciphers, distinctive villains, secret societies (exotic yet historically accurate), and other pleasures both sensual and cerebral.” — James Morrow, author of The Last Witchfinder