|
|
 |
| Spindle and Dagger |
|
author: J. Anderson Coats
|
Wales, 1109. Three years ago, a warband raided Elen’s home. Her baby sister could not escape the flames. Her older sister fought back and almost killed the warband’s leader, Owain ap Cadwgan, before being killed herself. Despite Elen’s own sexual assault at the hands of the raiders, she saw a chance to live and took it. She healed Owain’s wound and spun a lie: Owain ap Cadwgan, son of the king of Powys, cannot be killed, not by blade nor blow nor poison. Owain ap Cadwgan has the protection of Saint Elen, as long as he keeps her namesake safe from harm and near him always.
For three years, Elen has had plenty of food, clothes to wear, and a bed to sleep in that she shares with the man who brought that warband to her door. Then Owain abducts Nest, the wife of a Norman lord, and her three children, triggering full-out war. As war rages, and her careful lies threaten to unravel, Elen begins to look to Nest and see a different life — if she can decide, once and for all, where her loyalties lie. J. Anderson Coats’s evocative prose immerses the reader in a dark but ultimately affirming tale of power and survival. |
| This rich literary novel follows Elen, who must live a precarious lie in order to survive among the medieval Welsh warband that killed her family. |
suggested retail price (U.S.):
$18.99 |
isbn-10/isbn-13:
1536207772 / 9781536207774 |
pub date:
03/2020 |
type/format:
Young Adult Novel / Hardback |
age range:
16 yrs and up
|
# of pages/size:
304 / 5 1/2" x 8 1/4" |
grade range:
Grade 11 and up
|
|
subjects:
Historical; Social Themes; |
author’s comments:
J. Anderson Coats is the author of books and short stories for children and young adults. Her first novel, the critically acclaimed The Wicked and the Just, is also a story of medieval Wales. J. Anderson Coats lives and works as a librarian near Seattle, Washington. |
|
