The Road to Jerusalem (The Crusades Trilogy) - Softcover

It is thrilling and inspiring; bloody and romantic; utterly of the time it is set in, and utterly of the modern. A thoroughly stirring achievement. (Tom Holland, author of Rubicon: the Triumph and Tragedy of the Roman Republic)

Guillou tells a magnificent story while the reader is swept along in the slow rhythm, the kind of literary adagios, of the text. The setting is superbly depicted, and the novels portray the great seductive ability of the Scandinavian universe. (El Periodico (Spain))

One of the greatest historical novels to come out of Scandinavia in recent years. Far from being just a costume drama, Jan Guillou s narrative is a spiritual journey, a study of society, and above all the story of his protagonist. (Nils C. Ahl, Le Monde des Livres (France))

The first book in the international bestselling Crusades Trilogy - the thrilling, vivid story of Arn Magnusson s rise from nobleman s child to Knight Templar, and the fateful course of thwarted love and exile that lead him to the Holy Land to begin his epic quest.

Born in 1150 to an aristocratic Swedish family, Arn Magnusson comes of age in a monastery, under the tutelage of a Cistercian monk and a former Knight Templar. Arn s lessons include training in swordsmanship and archery, and it quickly becomes evident that the boy s talent is far beyond ordinary. Father Henri, responsible for Arn s up-bringing, begins to wonder what God has in store for his charge, and decides he must be granted a look at what lies waiting beyond the monastery walls.

At 17 the naïve and strong-willed young Arn is confronted with the reality of a violent Medieval Sweden torn by constant and bloody struggles for power. And when he encounters two beautiful sisters he is forced into a struggle of a very different kind. But before he can profess his love to the young Cecilia, he makes a fateful mistake that will change the course of his life forever. The established code leaves no room for clemency and the punishment for his offense is clear: Arn is conscripted into the Knights Templar, consigned to twenty years penance battling infidels in the Holy Land.

The first installment in one of the bestselling series in Sweden s history, Jan Guillou s The Road to Jerusalem sets a Shakespearian quest for power (Corrier della Sera, Italy) against the epic, historical backdrop of the Crusades, as seen through a completely vibrant and unorthodox lens.