In the foreword to this historical novel of 1977, Robert Merle wrote he had no definite plans for a sequel.
In the end, he wrote a dozen, collectively known as the Fortunes Of France series. It made Merle a household name in France, but the first in the series is only now being made available in English.
Set between 1545 and 1566, The Brethren is the story of a family living through the terrible conflict between the Huguenots and the ruling Catholic orthodoxy in France, narrated by Pierre, the younger son of the de Siorac family, who own a well-defended house in Perigord. His father, Jean, was a soldier who returned from the wars with his comrade-in-arms Jean Sauveterre and legally made him his brother. The two of them settled down to run a successful estate, keeping their adherence to the reformed Calvinist church largely under wraps.
Pierre is recounting this from memory, his recollections of the tension caused by his mother's refusal to convert, his turbulent relationship with his older brother and his sexual awakenings with the servant's daughter, Helix, supplemented by entries from the Book Of Reason, a journal in which the two Jeans wrote down their thoughts alongside a daily record of the estate's activities.
While they are living cautious lives, trying to make the most astute decisions at exactly the right time, the family also has to fight off attacks from gypsies and deal with the practical considerations of running a late-medieval home, such as budgeting for a defensive wall, making hay and arranging their wet-nurse's pregnancies - historical details all painstakingly researched but inserted into the narrative impressively casually.
The publishers hope this book will capture some of the readers hooked on Hilary Mantel's take on historical fiction. After being overlooked for so long in this country, it certainly deserves to. Perhaps there is a touch of academic dryness to it, with battles and treaties being discussed in slightly excessive detail, but The Brethren very quickly wins one over, balancing the politics of the royal court with the story of a family trying to stay alive at a volatile point in history.
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