Storytelling Motif

Gidwitz uses a storytelling motif similar to that of Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales in which Chaucer’s characters share stories as they travel as part of a storytelling contest. In The Inquisitor’s Tale, characters tell stories about the three children while gathering at an inn where the narrator sits hoping to collect information about the children.

Each chapter of the book is told from the perspective of one of the storytellers, with several of them having more than one chapter. Each storyteller brings his or her unique voice to the telling of the overall plot concerning the children and their quest to save Jewish books. To differentiate between when a story is being told and when the book has returned to the present time and the gathering at the inn, the parts that take place in the present time are in bold face...