Terra Sancta: The Saga of the Children's Crusade (English Edition) [Kindle-editie] beoordelingen het boek quotes

A daughter's search for her captured father during the time of the Children's Crusades and the clash between Christianity and Islam. From the secrets of the Cathar sect to the unity at the heart of religion, this epic adventure deals with issues that are current in today's headlines.   Adela of Vendome  haslost her beloved father to the Crusades that have been raging for a hundredyears.  Isolated from the world in herfiefdom hidden away in southern France, the independent young woman rebelsagainst the mores of her suffocating society.She falls in love with a peasant working her lands and is drawn into theworld of the Cathar, a mysterious religious sect mercilessly persecuted by thechurch authorities.  In the midst of thescandal, a neighboring knight, Aimery of Tours, comes to her rescue.  Adela chooses Bertran the peasant and joinsthe Children's Crusade in a desperate attempt to find her father, a captive ofthe Sarracens. Our protagonists are caught up in the whirlwind of an epictragedy as thousands of misled children are betrayed by merchants and sold intoslavery to the caliphs and emirs of the Arabian deserts.  The young lovers are separated and throwninto wild adventures in a desperate attempt to survive.  Bertran encounters the forces of the KnightTemplars and the secret Assassin sect led by the legendary Old Man of theMountain.  In the storm of this clash ofcivilizations, the lovers search for each other and discover the deep wisdom oftheir enemies as well as the core of their own faith.   Aimery of Tours, madly in love with Adela and enraged by thepeasant boy who bested him, joins the hordes of soldiers crossing theMediterranean Sea.  Destiny sweeps thethreesome together in a climactic synergy of events.  The young knight sacrifices his life forAdela and Bertran as he witnesses the soul mate love that joins themtogether.  The lovers find their way tothe mountaintop monastery where they free her father from his imprisonment anddespair.   Centered on a daughter's extraordinary search for hercaptured father, this novel explores the origins of the conflict between Islamand Christianity, details the drama of the ill-fated children's crusade,  reveals the mysteries of  the Cathar esoteric sect of southern Franceas well as those of the Old Man of the Mountain of Mideastern legends, andpresents highly researched historical events in an epic adventure of love andsacrifice.