This novel strikes me more as an extended allegory which captures the fears of "otherness" (even within their own village Beatrice and Axl are targeted), the festering anger at having been wronged, and yet the collective lack of memory for a broader view of history which might provide a more measured perspective on current events. I hesitate to give it a 4 because looked at this way it's almost too simple an allegory and avoids taking a view of the big answer - forgiveness - by ending without really having anything to say on the subject. 
 However, if you take it straight as an entertaining, well-written novel where two characters embark on a quest for enlightenment, meeting bizarre monks, abandoned children and other oddities along the way, well, I liked it that way too. I think it may have been difficult to have it both ways and that where it suffers from being both may be the substance of the characters themselves who lean a bit more to symbolic representations ("the devoted couple", "the angry warrior") than flesh and blood creations. 
 Still, to encompass the current political mood in a 14th century fantasy English setting which engages one in a bit of philosophy...I'd say that's a 4-star accomplishment.