“British filmmaker Hopkins’s ambitious and satisfying debut uses a big story—the century-plus cathedral building project in Hagenburg in the Holy Roman Empire (now Saxony)—to tell an even bigger story—the rise of merchants and the corresponding decline of the church through the 13th century [ . . . ] Six hundred pages sounds long, but this deeply human take on a medieval city and its commerce and aspirations, its violent battles and small intimacies, never feels that way. This sweeping work is as impressive as the cathedral at its center.”
Read the full Starred Review in Publishers Weekly.
