Surely the god has more sense than to choose an unbeliever to be the ritual Shepherd?
Remember that the god has chosen you, my son,’ said the priest. ‘Your life is now in his hands.’ ‘And in ours.’
An outsider and an unbeliever, Hanno none the less bows to family pressure and present himself at the temple along with all the youths of his age for the annual ritual to choose the Shepherd. But he never dreams that he will be chosen and forced to spend the year serving in the sanctuary of the temple.
In this gripping novel, Hanno struggles fiercely to retain an independent spirit in the face of a rigid, corrupt and power-hungry religious structure.