About this ebook
'Truly, truly remarkable' Karen Joy Fowler
'Extraordinary...resonates to many of the same chords as Beowulf, the legends of King Arthur, The Lord of the Rings, and Game of Thrones' Neal Stephenson
'You are a prophet and seer with the brightest mind in an age. Your blood is that of the man who should have been king ...That's what the king and his lords see. And they will kill you, one day'
In seventh century Britain, a new religion is coming ashore while small kingdoms are merging, frequently and violently. Hild is the king's youngest niece, with a glittering mind and natural authority,
She is destined to become one of the pivotal figures of the early Middle Ages: Saint Hilda of Whitby. But for now she has only the powerful curiosity of a child and the precarious advantage of a plotting uncle, Edwin of Northumbria, who will stop at nothing to beome king of the Angles.
Hild establishes herself at her uncle's side as the king's seer, and becomes indispensable - as long as all goes well for Edwin. The stakes are high - life and death - for Hild, her family and for all those who seek the protection of this strange girl who seems to see the future.
In this vivid, utterly compelling novel, Nicola Griffith has brought the Early Middle Ages to life in an extraordinary act of alchemy, transporting the reader into a mesmerising, unforgettable world.
'Extraordinary...resonates to many of the same chords as Beowulf, the legends of King Arthur, The Lord of the Rings, and Game of Thrones' Neal Stephenson
'You are a prophet and seer with the brightest mind in an age. Your blood is that of the man who should have been king ...That's what the king and his lords see. And they will kill you, one day'
In seventh century Britain, a new religion is coming ashore while small kingdoms are merging, frequently and violently. Hild is the king's youngest niece, with a glittering mind and natural authority,
She is destined to become one of the pivotal figures of the early Middle Ages: Saint Hilda of Whitby. But for now she has only the powerful curiosity of a child and the precarious advantage of a plotting uncle, Edwin of Northumbria, who will stop at nothing to beome king of the Angles.
Hild establishes herself at her uncle's side as the king's seer, and becomes indispensable - as long as all goes well for Edwin. The stakes are high - life and death - for Hild, her family and for all those who seek the protection of this strange girl who seems to see the future.
In this vivid, utterly compelling novel, Nicola Griffith has brought the Early Middle Ages to life in an extraordinary act of alchemy, transporting the reader into a mesmerising, unforgettable world.
Ratings and reviews
4.3
9 reviews
Nick Yoctopus
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August 13, 2018
Fantastic. Beautiful narrative, amazing character. Let's you empathize with
the dark age mind. So human.
1 person found this review helpful
About the author
Nicola Griffith is the award-winning author of five previous novels and a memoir. A native of Yorkshire - now a dual US/UK citizen - she is a onetime self-defence instructor who turned to writing full-time upon being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1993. She lives with her wife, the writer Kelley Eskridge, in Seattle.
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