A Little Lower Than the Angels

Modern writers rarely reach back to the feudal era as the setting for their novels, but that doesn't mean there isn't rich material from the age. At least there is in the hands of Geraldine McCaughrean. Her novel, A Little Lower Than the Angels, which won a Whitbread Prize in 1987, features a host of vivid characters, including Gabriel, a stonemason's apprentice who leaves an abusive master to play the part of an angel in a traveling play. He's so convincing that peasants shower him with coins, and Gabriel believes he's found his calling.