1350-ish, everything belongs to the Black Death. A woman loses everything, sheds her name, country and long hair, dresses in pants and sets out across a fundamentally traumatised and decimated Europe where, nevertheless, new ideas and structures are sprouting in the spaces left by millions dead.

Yes, it's certainly less pirate-booty fun than Boardy's previous novel, but shares similar ideas of female relationships, genderfuckery, the weight of history, etc. Her/his story as he/she walks through much of what's left of continental Europe is intriguing even if it lacks some central secondary characters. And the flashforwards bother me a bit; we know about the 20th century, we don't need it spelled out all the time as if Boardy didn't trust her 14th century characters to be important in their own right.

But yeah, I sped through it in two days, which is not a bad thing.