Book of the Week

FLAME AND HARP

This towering medieval epic about Tristan and Isolde is narrated for the first time from the point of view of a woman. The story reveals the men’s eagerness for power and women’s hidden achievements.

Yseult, the daughter of the Irish king, has to marry the British Christian king Marcus Cunomorus. But she falls in love with his son Drystan and has a passionate affair with him. Marcus finds out about the affair and kills his son.

In return, Yseult, who is expecting a child from Drystan, takes revenge and kills Marcus.

In her debut novel, Ruth Nestvold tells the story in a historically authentic as well as undescribably amorous way.

This exceptional romantic fantasy epic will be published by the new Random House imprint Penhaligon in January 2009 and has been compared to Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Mists of Avalon --- and truly so!

Complete English manuscript available

Ruth Nestvold is an American Science fiction and Fantasy writer. Born in Washington and raised in Oregon, she now lives in Stuttgart, Germany, where she works in technical translation and localization.

Her first professional publication was Latency Time, published in Asimov's Science Fiction in 2001. Since then, her short fiction has appeared in numerous publications, including Realms of Fantasy, Sci Fiction, Strange Horizons, Futurismic, and several year's best anthologies.

In 2004, her novella Looking Through Lace was short-listed for the Tiptree Award and nominated for the Sturgeon Award. In 2007, the Italian translation Il linguaggio segreto won the "Premio Italia" Award for best work of science fiction or fantasy translated into Italian in 2006.

Link: www.ruthnestvold.com

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