Rainy Day Reads

I picked this particular challenge, because I’ve heard so many good things about Guillou and his writing, and especially this series. This was all over the place a few (many!) years ago, there was even a movie, so I figured I should get stuck into it and what better place to start than with this book.  The story is about a young boy, Arn, who is born and raised on an affluent farm/manor in Medieval Sweden. Various circumstances lead his parents to send him to be raised in a convent and here he learns practically everything (and then some) worth knowing in Medieval Sweden. When he is a young man the monks send him back to his father’s house to learn about the “ways of the world” outside the convent. This leads to a number of misunderstandings and other events and end up with Arn getting on the road to Jerusalem.  To be honest I don’t really know what I expected from this book. Probably a little more Knight Templar action, but what it was, was basically Arn co...