A new religion is coming ashore the old gods are struggling, their priests worrying. In seventh century Britain, small kingdoms are merging, usually violently. “ Hild is magnificent, an urgent, expansive pleasure…a pulse-pounding page-turner.” - Lambda Literary Review.“ Hild is the most absorbing and addictive story I’ve read in years… It’s feminist, intelligent, glorious.“ Griffith’s narrative flows like a river Hild’s thoughts and deeds are expressed in pitch-perfect tone, in prose approaching poetry.” - Historical Novel Society.“A glorious, intensely passionate walk through an entirely real landscape, Hild leads us into the dark ages and makes them light, and tense, and edgy and deeply moving.” - Manda Scott.“Vivid, vital, and visceral, Hild’s history reads like a thriller.” - Val McDermid.“Splendid… not only beautiful but also meaningful… I can hardly wait for the next.” - Los Angeles Review of Books.“ Vibrant, if brutal… Inventive and vivid.” - Washington Post.Truly, truly remarkable.” - Karen Joy Fowler “ What a fabulous book! I fell into this world completely and was sorry to come out.“ The novel resonates to many of the same chords as Beowulf, the legends of King Arthur, Lord of the Rings, and Game of Thrones -to the extent that Hild begins to feel like the classic on which those books are based.” - Neal Stephenson.

“I was impressed-as a fellow-writer and a Northumbrian archaeologist.“In it’s ambition and intelligence, Hild might best be compared to Hilary Mantel’s novels about Thomas Cromwell.” - Bookforum.“It is the best fictional attempt to recreate Dark Age Britain that I have ever read.” - Alex Woolf.“… dazzling… Griffith’s lyrical prose emphasizes the savagery of the political landscape, in which religion, sex, and superstition are wielded mercilessly for personal gain.” - Paris Review Daily.The writing is lucent and the plot enthralling, but perhaps most impressive is how the author creates and sustains a rare feeling in the reader of really living among the characters.” - Morning Star “ Hild by Nicola Griffith may well be a future classic.“A stunning blend of real history and soaring imagination…steeped in the language and customs of early Britain, rich in historical detail, outstanding in observation of human nature… believable and breathtaking.” - Lancashire Evening Post.It genuinely brings the period to life.” - The Bookseller “Beautiful, thorny jacket for this beautiful literary novel.Griffith illuminates the so-called Dark Ages, reconstructing an often alien historical world with great precision.” - BBC History Magazine “ Vivid, richly detailed…a powerful, clever novel.“A magnificent and convincing portrayal of a strange, wild, beautiful world.” - Guardian.Farrar, Straus and Giroux (US, Canada), 12 November 2013īlackfriars/Little, Brown (UK, Commonwealth), 24 July 2014

Hild book review