A Boy’s Life

A medieval mystery that mixes historical fiction with magical realism receives a Newbery Honors nod.

“I’m increasingly of the opinion that curiosity is one of the most important traits a writer can have,” Catherine Gilbert Murdock ’88 once told an interviewer.

Proof of point? Her latest book, The Book of Boy. Set in 1350, it is rich in research about the Middle Ages, including the challenges of pilgrimage, the nature of holy relics, village life in medieval France—and animals.

The story of a boy named Boy, a humpback and outcast granted the ability to communicate with animals, the novel follows his travels through Europe. Taken up by a villain posing as a pilgrim, Boy joins in a quest to collect Saint Peter’s relics—except that “collect” really means “steal.”

Published in February 2018, The Book of Boy made a slew of Best of the Year lists—and, in January, was named a 2019 Newbery Honor Book. Awarded annually by the Association for Library Service to Children, the Newbery Medal recognizes the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children; Newbery Honors are awarded to leading Medal contenders.

In addition to portraying all things medieval, Murdock included a menagerie of animals in the book. “Most of those animals,” she explains, “are based on animals I have met myself.” There’s a mastiff, a war horse, donkeys, a pack of hounds, starlings, and a cat “based 100 percent on our cat, Daphne.”

A Growth and Structures of Cities major, Murdock earned her Ph.D. in American history from the University of Pennsylvania. After grad school, she pursued writing with a vengeance. On her website, she explains, “I edited two books; I wrote museum wall plaques; I wrote installation manuals; I copy-edited magazine ads; I wrote grant proposals for an architectural firm; I wrote a catalog for a pool-supply company; I wrote 10 screenplays, with multiple drafts of each script; I wrote many, many letters to the editor, most unsent, the rest unpublished. ... I wrote a lot. And every single one of these experiences made me a better writer.” Clearly, she was onto a winning tactic: Today, Murdock has eight books to her name—seven novels for young readers and Domesticating Drink: Women, Men, and Alcohol in America, 1870–1940, a history of Prohibition published by Johns Hopkins University Press and hailed by the Wall Street Journal as one of the five best books on alcohol.

In the Beginning

"This story, like another, begins with an apple. The apple in my tale was not ripe and tempting but wrinkled and old, too high to pluck and too stubborn to drop. It hung from a whip-thin branch, dancing in the cold March wind. The goats pranced round the tree trunk, bleating their frustration.”

—from The Book of Boy by Catherine Gilbert Murdock ’88 (HarperCollins, 2018)