Judith Starkston's Reviews > The Wool Translator

Schooley shows great skill in building a far-reaching, clever, and emotionally engaging historical plot that twines together characters who at first seem impossibly unrelated. These fully-developed characters step into his tale from across the medieval world. They come from England, Paris, Bruges, Granada, and elsewhere in the 15th century Nasrid kingdom of southern Spain.

Part of the fun of reading The Wool Translator is watching how Schooley will pull a French priest studying at the Universities of Paris into the same story as Newt, a linguistically-too-smart-for-his-own good English youngster. Then Schooley throws into the mix Aisha, a Muslim girl who is a mathematical prodigy. How on earth could these three ever cross paths? It’s masterfully done. Everything in their worlds is designed to keep them apart.

Being kept apart turns out to be the point when to the reader’s delight, the twisty plot brings Newt and Aisha together under the insufficiently alert eye of the French priest. The two brilliant young people, who do not fit comfortably into their respective worlds, turn out to find “home” in each other’s souls. That is not going to be a smooth road, but watching its bumps and dead ends is fascinating. This isn’t a romance, although there is a very determined pair who love each other at its core. There are multiple themes winding around the gradual development of this relationship and the determined way each of their families and society at large do everything they can to prevent these two unusual young people from finding settled happiness.

Will the world win or two brilliant, creative minds? In any case, each character grows and conquers so much that defining a win or a loss for them is a profound challenge, as Schooley reflects the fullness of nuances and complexities in these medieval lives.