Rora by James Byron Huggens

I read this book about the Waldenses, a Protestant group, this spring (after buying it by accident...remember my story about hitting the "Buy with one click" button on Amazon.ca?!), and I thoroughly loved it. In fact, I am impatiently waiting for my SIL to finish with it so that I can read it again! You can read the historical background here, although I warn you that there are some facts reported here that will be "spoilers" for you if you plan to read the book!I found the following review online, and, aside from the grammatical errors :o) it pretty much says it how I would have said it:

"My husband gave me a book that he was really excited about. I think it is one of his favorites. It is now on my favorites list too. The book is Rora by James Byron Huggins. Rora is around 480 pages and was published in 2007. It is one of the longest books I have read in a while. This one is definitely is worth a long read. In fact, I didn’t want it to end.

It is a story that is based on some historical facts. It is placed in the time of the Inquisitors. A valley, in the mountains, on the border of France and Italy. Rora tells the story of a man, Joshua Gianavel, who leads his people to fight against the Inquisitors. The story goes through the motives of the Inquisitors, the influence they had on the King, the people defending themselves, and other countries trying to help the people of the valley. There is so much detail in this book, that I could probably write on and on. Rora was extremely well written. I have read other books by Huggins. Rora really stands out. The hard part of reading this story is that some of the events really did happen. I don’t know how many times I would cry while reading Rora. It is one thing to read complete fiction, and then it is another to read fiction that depicts some of the hardships people really did have to face. Rora has made me think about things I never really thought about before.

Rora is a book that I would recommend to all. I am very grateful that my husband shared this book with me."

Rora does not appear to be available at the Hamilton Public Library, but Chapters has it listed for $12.91.