Through the Lion’s Gate takes place in 1352 London. In the second chapter, it goes back four years to the beginning of the Black Plague to describe how Tom lost his parents. I read many books to get a flavor of that horrific time, one of which was Boccaccio’s Decameron, about seven women and three men in 1948 who flee plague-ridden Florence to sequester themselves in a villa. Decameron means ten days, and each of the ten people tells a story each day to pass the time. After ten days there are 100 stories, which make up Boccaccio’s book.
