Lapvona by Ottessa Moshfegh

Set in the middle ages in a smaller fiefdom this is a story of the pecking order of a village and their lord including all the superstition, religion and power struggles that go along with daily life. There is a lonely sheepherder, his strange cast off motherless son, the local wet-nurse with magical powers, the tyrannical Villam and his band of servants and the local priest. Villam is a crude and obnoxious ruler who takes the villagers last coin while cutting off their water supply and having his guards secretly raid the village to keep them in line. Their luck has gone from bad to worse coinciding with the "Prince and the Pauper" son switch that sends the sheepherder's son to the castle after Villam's son dies. The only ones that seem to keep things together are the ones without any overt power - the women. This is a cruel look at power, abuse and what it meant to be a woman in the middle ages sure to appeal to readers of Ken Follett's Kingsbridge series and Lauren Graff's MATRIX.  4 stars