“Set in an age when marriage was strategy, love was temptation, and treachery was a tool of survival, Nicole Galland’s Fool’s Tale creates a vivid twelfth-century world and three unforgettable characters whose lives entwine with war and politics, and climax in an ending as haunting as it is powerful.”
—William Dietrich, author of Hadrian’s Wall
“Galland’s first novel is an entertaining saga adeptly weaving together political intrigue and deceit, love that both unifies and divides, loyalty that teeters on treason, and the desire for freedom, which comes with a hefty price.”
—Booklist
“Galland debuts impressively…. She strikingly captures the murky Welsh setting and even murkier politics…. Readers will relish the energetic back-and-forth of the protagonists’ ceaseless trysting.”
—Publishers Weekly
“The characters and descriptions in Galland’s world certainly are worth stopping by to meet as the story gallops through a time of treachery, rife with infighting among the four kingdoms of Wales and border clashes with the English barons…. As we share life from the perspective of each of the three main characters, understanding takes its turn amid powerful emotional tides, awash in realities of today.”
—Albany Times Union
“The characters of Isabel, Noble, and especially Gwirion are deftly drawn, and racy depictions of their fateful interactions become quite compulsively readable…highly entertaining.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“In The Fool’s Tale, Nicole Galland has created an absolutely engaging historical novel with a charmingly modern sensibility. It is a pleasure to read.”
—David Liss, author of A Spectacle of Corruption
“[Galland]’s credentials from stage and screen (Berkeley Rep) are evident in her deft, dramatic dialogue and pacing…less slick than James Patterson’s Jester, but more believable.”
—Library Journal