Kate Mosse is a British author who has been honored in the US on the New York Times bestseller list and in the United Kingdom as an author, British Broadcasting Company commentator, and BBC broadcaster. Her third novel, Labyrinth, was a New York Times Bestseller and named as one of the Top 25 books of the past 25 years by the Waterstone’s bookstore chain in the United Kingdom. Labyrinth
was published in the United States by G. Putnam’s Sons, part of the Penguin Group Ltd. (ISBN: 0-399-15344-6 for the hardback) in 2006.
Medieval Power Struggles
The Labyrinth is a modern tale of Dr. Alice Tanner, who accepted an invitation from her friend to volunteer with an archeological dig in France. On her last day on the site before leaving to take care of some other personal business in a nearby town, Alice finds a buckle that leads her to a cave that contains two ancient skeletons and a labyrinth design that seems strangely familiar to Alice. She is startled by footsteps, becomes disoriented and passes out.
The story then shifts back to 1209 and a woman named Alaïs who is part of a sect of Christians in the Languedoc region of France who are now called the Cathars (and in medieval times were referred to as the Host or l’Ost in the local language). Historically, Pope Innocent III began preaching a Crusade against the Cathars in March 1208. According to the Labryinth’s historical note, this was the first Crusade preached by the Catholic Church against a group of Christians on European soil and this led directly to the founding of the Inquisition in 1233. Mosse also indicates that the northern French barons saw the Crusade as a chance to acquire a trading advantage, as well as lands and wealth, of southern French barons.
Alice is drawn back into Alaïs’s life, reliving her experiences as her city is challenged and attacked as part of the crusade against the Cathars. As her community is thrown into turmoil, Alaïs also learns that her father has secrets and obligations related to the Grail and its mysteries. She is torn between her obligations to her town and people and her desire to help her father with his secret duties.
As Alice discovers more about the events of 1209, she finds more and more ties to her own life and family. She also discovers that the enemies Alaïs faced also have their own modern counterparts.
Background and Sequels
Mosse and her family live in Chichester, England and Carcassonne, France (near the area where Labyrinth was set). Miosse is the co-founder and director of the Orange Prize for Fiction and a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. She and her husband founded the Chichester Writing Festival and teach creative writing at West Dean College. Her follow-up novel to Labyrinth, called Sepulchre, is another timeslip adventure set in the same city as the historical aspects of Labyrinth. For more information about Mosse and her books, click here for her website.
