Morwenna is the kind of heroine I instantly connect with. She’s pragmatic, no-nonsense, focused on her goals—which is why I found it utterly hilarious that we meet her when she is profoundly exasperated by the antics of Henry Truelove. Henry, the son of a local gentleman, is attempting to woo Morwenna by sending her as many of the gifts mentioned in “The Twelve Days of Christmas” as he can afford before going into debt. The pear trees were useful. The partridges were tasty. By day five, however, Morwenna is starting to run out of places to put all the birds. This kind of comically overplanned scheme is just the first of many in Mo Conlan’s gently entertaining novel The Lost Books.
Set in rural Cornwall some years after Henry VIII’s dissolution of the monasteries, The Lost Books is a rambling collection of plots centered on Morwenna, Henry, a former monk named Tom, at least two of eight milkmaids, and others who call themselves the Holy Pirates. This loose band formed in response to Henry’s efforts to keep his family from being taxed into poverty at the hands of an unscrupulous family of tax collectors. Later, the same group will scheme against a greedy abbot who is enriching himself by selling off things he stole from his old monastery before anyone else could get their hands on them. Tom inspires the group to find and save the books—described as beautifully bound literal and figurative treasures—before they can be sold to people who might destroy them or keep them hidden away in private collections.
This bare-bones summary doesn’t nearly capture the elaborate schemes cooked up by the Holy Pirates to thwart their enemies and achieve their ends. As I read about Morwenna and Henry’s plans (involving a lot of cross-dressing, plays within plays, and a few quick changes), I was strongly reminded of some of the more eye-rolling plots conjured up by some of Shakespeare’s characters (looking at you, Viola and Hamlet). The stakes never really rise above the level of Shakespeare’s comedies, either, and it’s very easy to spot which characters are going to end up getting married*. It’s funny to watch it all play out, even if some of it isn’t very believable, and I could easily picture the characters rushing back and forth across a stage.
Fans of historical fiction looking for a bit of low-stakes entertainment will enjoy The Lost Books, especially if they’re familiar enough with Shakespeare to spot the callbacks.
* English majors know that in Shakespeare’s plays, all the major characters will end up dead or married. That’s how you know the play is over.