At first we do not know if Christophe loves books so much or if the real reason for his frequent visits to the printer François Goulart's workshop is the presence of Marie, the printer's daughter. The book The house of the golden compass It was born as a double love story in the making.
It was the year 1532 in the city of Lyon. A kind of imprimatur o Catholic ecclesiastical authorization for the printing of a book remains a norm of due compliance and of fatal consequences in the event of even having a book planned that cannot be given the nihil obstat (nothing to oppose).
Unconsciously, one bad day Christophe reveals a clergyman what he discovered in an improper, clearly inappropriate reading of the church, completely amoral. That fact has dire consequences for the printing shop and for his love of books, parallel to his love of Marie's complicit glances, which promised to learn a book of life that was always desired.
The unexpected and cruel end of the workshop marks Christophe forever. But he has already assumed his guilt and his duty, and will move throughout Europe, always looking for the spaces where books were born. A lifestyle that will mean misery and poverty, but where you will learn and enlighten yourself between pages and pages of books written by illustrious minds of the time.
The price of his guilt will be paid one fine day, when he finds his prominent place as a defender of books and becomes the champion of literature and science, of history and of the soul of men. The feathers that were busy witnessing it all will find in Christophe their strongest defender.
A superbly told story that gathers great doses of adventure, told with elegance and precision.
You can now buy La casa del compás de oro, the latest novel by Begoña Valero, here: