Ultreia

The Way Begins with a Revolution: the story of two outcasts who will change the fate of Compostela 

Under the pretext of building a new cathedral, Bishop Diego Gelmírez crushes Compostela under a burden of taxes. And it is not only the colossal construction of the temple that these levies fund: they also sustain his private army, swell his personal fortune, and raise a palace as ostentatious as it is insulting. 

The only ones capable of standing up to the bishop are the powerful—nobles, merchants, Queen Urraca and her heir. But they do not. They fight among themselves, scrambling for scraps. Meanwhile, the humble, the people, are left with only one certainty: hunger… and the hope of rebellion. 

Oblivious to all this, pilgrims arrive in a city torn apart by ambition and threatened by Almoravid fanatics, eager to cross the Tagus and bring down the cross. 

And yet, the fate of Compostela will not be decided by crown or mitre. It will be decided by a thief and a stonemason: the daughter of a goldsmith ruined by Bishop Gelmírez, and a hunchback shattered by the death of his own daughter. She steals in the alleys and flies across rooftops. He drowns his sorrows in cider and carves demons in stone. Both will be caught in a conspiracy that will change them forever—and change Compostela with them. 

They have lost everything. 

They only have each other. 

In the chaos of rebellion, can they once again become who they once were: daughter and father?  

Ultreia is a portrait of the foundations of future Europe. With his trademark mastery, Francisco Narla weaves history and legend into a tale of struggle and hope, set amid the splendour and darkness of the Middle Ages.