#BlogTour-‘Wakenhyrst’ by Michelle Paver

Hugest thanks to Anabelle at Head Of Zeus for having me on the blog tour for the fabulous ‘Wakenhyrst’ by Michelle Paver ! Available now in hardback or audiobook format.

About the book…

The new novel everyone’s been waiting for from bestselling author Michelle Paver.

“Something has been let loose…”

In Edwardian Suffolk, a manor house stands alone in a lost corner of the Fens: a glinting wilderness of water whose whispering reeds guard ancient secrets. Maud is a lonely child growing up without a mother, ruled by her repressive father.

When he finds a painted medieval devil in a graveyard, unhallowed forces are awakened. Maud’s battle has begun. She must survive a world haunted by witchcraft, the age-old legends of her beloved fen – and the even more nightmarish demons of her father’s past.

Spanning five centuries, Wakenhyrst is a darkly gothic thriller about murderous obsession and one girl’s longing to fly free by the bestselling author of Dark Matter and Thin Air. Wakenhyrst is an outstanding new piece of story-telling, a tale of mystery and imagination laced with terror. It is a masterwork in the modern gothic tradition that ranges from Mary Shelley and Bram Stoker to Neil Gaiman and Sarah Perry.

This is absolutely splendid!

With breathtaking story lines and rich, gothic imagery, Michelle Paver has created a fable that is both modern and timeless at the same time.

It starts in the 1960’s, with 3 paintings by historian Edward Stearne, committed to an asylum for an unspeakable crime, and his daughter Maud, relentlessly reclusive, living in the family mansion who finally decides to tell her story.

Going back to the beginning of the 20th century, the novel then paints a picture of the subjugation of women and their expected role in society versus the wilderness of the English fens.

Not outright horrific as with ‘Thin Air’, this is a creeping, dark and lyrical look at sanity, the role of women and expectations of society versus self determination framed in a narrative which immediately immerses you.

Powerful, deeply creepy and moving, it has echoes of ‘Frankenstein’ and ‘The Wolves Of Willoughby Chase’ and was a pure joy to read.

About the author…

Michelle Paver was born in Central Africa, but came to England as a child. After gaining a degree in Biochemistry from Oxford University, she became a partner in a City law firm, but eventually gave that up to write full-time.

The hugely successful Chronicles of Ancient Darkness series arose from Michelle’s lifelong passion for animals, anthropology and the distant past – as as well as an encounter with a large bear in a remote valley in southern California. To research the books, Michelle has traveled to Finland, Greenland, Sweden, Norway, Arctic Canada and the Carpathian Mountains. She has slept on reindeer skins, swum with wild orca (killer whales), and got nose-to-nose with polar bears – and, of course, wolves.

Links-https://www.michellepaver.com/

Twitter @MichellePaver

@HoZ