On the surface, there is little material likely to offend anyone in The Trumpeter of Krakow. Kelly gracefully handles the unruly, potentially violent times he deals with; there are many moments of excitement and danger, but no killings or gratuitous violence. Kelly is a deeply moral writer; but for a book dealing with a highly religious people in a highly religious age, The Trumpeter of Krakow hardly mentions religion at all. Some readers might, with some justification, find fault with the novel's primary female character, Elzbietka, who has been relegated to a passive role. But Elzbietka, like most of the novel's characters, is probably less important as a person than as part of a window through which a wonderfully vital and important age can be seen.

At a much deeper level, The Trumpeter of Krakow could be interpreted as a statement on issues that some people...