TIMES BOOK OF THE MONTHONE OF THE TIMES BEST HISTORICAL FICTION NOVELS OF 2025Inthe summer of 1566 an infernoof political rebellion and image-smashing, the Beeldenstorm, sweptacross Flanders and Holland; young Gillis Vervloet,model and muse to artist Pieter Bruegel, almost didn't survive. Morethan sixty years later, in the Saarland forest, Gil wants only to enter themonastery of St Bartolomeus andlive out his days in peace, but first he must find their long-lost statue of StMichael. And to prove he is not a heretic, Gil must also account for his lifewith Bruegel, who painted a tense path through the artistic riches,intellectual ferment and explosive religious politics of the Low Countries. Ashe writes of his passionate vocation for the priesthood and impossible love forDorothea, his outlaw brother Roeland and radical priest-mentor Pater Paulus,Gil's hard-won understanding must show him where to seek St Michael, and savehim from the Inquisition. TheBruegel Boy is a profound exploration of love,brotherhood, vocation and the power of art to transform lives but also divideand even destroy them.
