Her insight into human nature and eye for telling detail is as keen as that of the extraordinary Hild herself. Nicola Griffith’s command of the era is worn lightly and delivered as a deeply engaging plot. “You will never think of them as the Dark Ages again. Working from what little historical record is extant, Griffith has brought a beautiful, brutal world to vivid, absorbing life. Hild is a young woman at the heart of the violence, subtlety, and mysticism of the early Middle Ages-all of it brilliantly and accurately evoked by Nicola Griffith's luminous prose. The stakes are life and death: for Hild, for her family, for her loved ones, and for the increasing numbers who seek the protection of the strange girl who can read the world and see the future. And she is indispensable-unless she should ever lead the king astray.

Hild establishes a place for herself at his side as the king's seer. Her uncle, Edwin of Northumbria, plots to become overking of the Angles, ruthlessly using every tool at his disposal: blood, bribery, belief. She will become a fascinating woman and one of the pivotal figures of the Middle Ages: Saint Hilda of Whitby.īut now she has only the powerful curiosity of a bright child, a will of adamant, and a way of seeing the world-of studying nature, of matching cause with effect, of observing her surroundings closely and predicting what will happen next-that can seem uncanny, even supernatural, to those around her. Hild is the king's youngest niece, and she has a glimmering mind and a natural, noble authority. A new religion is coming ashore the old gods are struggling, their priests worrying. In seventh-century Britain, small kingdoms are merging, frequently and violently. A brilliant, lush, sweeping historical novel about the rise of the most powerful woman of the Middle Ages: Hild

Hild book