Have you read “Great Maria” by Cecilia Holland? Kind of blew me away; I was expecting nothing, but it’s one of if not the best medieval-period historical fiction novels I’ve read. Set during a fictionalized version of the Norman conquest of Islamic Sicily, really psychologically grounded in the time. Not to be like, “TW: literature”, but since I’m recommending I feel I should say that there’s a violent rape depicted at a distance early in the book, and the MC’s marriage is like you know troubled as you might imagine a marriage between a teenaged girl and a professional soldier to be—he hits her periodically throughout the book, and though it’s never violent, there’s marital rape/coerced sex (only being wishy-washy with terms to try and convey the like severity/texture of the scenes) depicted at least once and mentioned several times, though the most interesting part of the book is the nuance in MC’s relationship with her husband, how it evolves, and how this very real love grows between them despite their perpetually being at odds and his persistent, well, personality. He felt like an insightful portrayal of a very real type of man. I feel like this is NOT a compelling rec lol but you know! It’s good! Maybe in short I’d say that it depicts the time, the place, and the people without sentimentality but also not without humanity.
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