Gatty's Tale

i just finished reading Gatty's Tale, by Kevin Crossley-Holland, recommended to me by joeythepoey. what an amazing read - a really great story, and it's really well-written. i especially love how little explaining the author does. he drops characters' conversations in without explaining how they are speaking (angrily, sarcastically, happily, etc). you get to infer by the other characters' comments and actions, yet it's all done so obliquely that you hardly notice you are doing it, and all of a sudden you just "get" the characters - they're so well-formed and true to themselves.
i love that in a writer.

the story is set in the 13th century, and Gatty - a field girl, an orphan, from Wales - is taken on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
this is a little tiny snippet from the first page:

"Gatty stood up, crossed herself, reached for her russet woollen tunic lying on a bale of hay, and pulled it on over her undershirt and baggy drawers. Loudly she yawned. She opened her mouth so wide she could hear all her little headbones cricking and cracking. Then she stepped round to the next stall.
'Greetings in God!' she said politely to her cow. She gave Hopeless a handful of grain, pulled up her three-legged stool, and began to milk her."

and i'm not going to tell you anything else, because i think you should read it for yourself! :)