The Heart Remembers
This gentle but absorbing novel is the third in a series that began with Redfern’s critically-acclaimed Flint and continued with The Storyteller’s Granddaughter. Told from several perspectives, the band of good-hearted characters who came together in an epic trek from 14th-century Anatolia (Turkey) to Venice in the second novel continue on their various personal quests, encountering helpers and antagonists in roughly equal measure along the way.
The central story is of Kazan, the Turkish-born, red-haired granddaughter of the Welsh bard Will whose story was told in the first novel. She continues her quest across Europe to Wales, hoping to reunite with her grandfather in Wales, aided by the self-sacrificing Welshman Dai, who has saved her life on several occasions and has come to realize that he loves her.
Readers who want complex character relationships and suspense should read the previous novel first, as this one (after a tense series of events in Venice that separate the loving band of friends again) is focused mainly on bringing its characters—their loves and losses already established—to their hearts’ desires. This novel is at its best when it focuses on the efforts of one character, Edgar, to establish an ideal manor community in Lincolnshire. The wealth of detail about medieval domestic life makes for a comforting read, although the political complexities of the time are far-off and inconsequential to the characters. Overall, the lack of plot is balanced by the grace of Redfern’s narrative style and her deep knowledge of the time period.
