My Swordhand is Singing - Couverture rigide

Sedgwick, Marcus

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 1842551833 ISBN 13 : 9781842551837

Editeur : Orion Children's Books, 2006

Synopsis

Unusual book

A propos du livre

Extrait :

1

Deep in the Woods

When he fell for the fifth time, when his face plunged into the deep snow, when his hands burnt from the cold but he didn’t care, Radu the woodcutter knew he was going to die. Somewhere behind him in the darknesses of the forest he could hear the man who had attacked him. He was scared now, almost too scared to move, almost too cold to run anymore, but still he knew something was wrong. Something that should not be.

He got up and stumbled on desperately, sending snow flying in little spurts. Even here among the thickness of the trees it lay heavily on the ground, whisked and funneled by the east wind into strange hills and troughs, like white beasts lurking at the foot of the birches.

Radu looked behind him, but could see nothing. Nothing but the vast unfathomable forest. It was said you could ride from Poland to Turkey and never leave the trees behind, but he knew that wasn’t true. Nothing could be that big! Not even the Mother Forest.

He stopped for a moment, listening hard, but all he could hear was his own panting as he sucked air into his painful chest. He no longer knew where he was, though the forest had been his home all his life. His hut and his village were far away. He looked around, straining to recognize anything, but all he saw were a hundred thousand silver birch trees.

A branch cracked, and with horror Radu’s eyes snapped back to his pursuer. Now that Radu saw him again, he knew what was wrong.

“In the name of Jesus and the Forest . . .”

The words fell dead in the softness of the snow, but even as they did Radu turned and began to run, lurching wildly from tree to tree. His right hand left a smear of blood on the paper bark of a birch, but that wound was irrelevant now. It was such a short while since he’d been cutting wood with his axe. The axe that lay somewhere in the snow, its blade stained with blood, already frozen. His blood.

He hit another two trees, but barely noticed, and suddenly he realized where he was. Close to Chust, where his fellow woodcutter Tomas lived in a hut outside the village.

For a fleeting moment a flame of hope ignited in his heart. He had run fast, the village was only a short way through the trees, and he could no longer hear his attacker behind him.

But then Radu rounded a tree and ran straight into him.

The man was not tall, but he was fat. Bloated. His skin was as white as the trees around them. There was dried blood at the corners of his shriveled mouth. It had taken Radu all this time to recognize him.

Radu took a step backward, his fur boots brushing through the snow. He tripped over an unseen root, but kept his feet. He lifted a hand and pointed at the man.

“But Willem. You’re dead!”

The man lunged forward and shoved his hand like a knife into Radu’s chest, feeling for his heart.

“Not anymore,” he said.

And now it was Radu who fell dead in the softness of the snow.
From the Hardcover edition.

Revue de presse :

'the direct simplicity of the writing make for high readability.' (Jennifer Taylor THE BOOKSELLER)

Sedwick has taken early vampire legends and masterfully crafted them into this dark tale. His story is like a journey into a beautiful gothic painting...It is possible to read My Swordhand is Singing bravely, only hiding under the duvet a little, knowing it is all make-believe. Yet part of you closes this book wondering, as you reach for the garlic, if Sedgwick's haunting world of vampires could be real. I can't wait for my 11-year-old to get her teeth into it. (Vivien Hamilton DAILY TELEGRAPH)

'The tension is good, so are the vivid descriptions and the sense that it is today, when in fact it happened in the 1600s.' (Laura Findlay, Aged 10 UNDERCOVER)

'A truly chilling gothic tale, set in 17th century eastern Europe which expertly reinterprets the vampire myth... Expertly reseached and beautifully written, this is a heart-stopping story, which had me mesmerised from beginning to end.' (Becky Stradwick THE BOOKSELLER)

'The pace of the story seeps us through the fear and superstition of the frozen village and out and away with the travelling people as Peter starts his new life.' (Pat Thomson CAROUSEL)

'Dark, well-researched and with emotional punch, this is one of the books of the year.' (FUNDAY TIMES)

'chilling' (Amanda Craig THE TIMES)

'a gem of a spooky tale that will chill event the warmest blood... the 7th novel by Marcus Sedgwick and it is his best yet. Vampire stories have been told for centuries and My Swordhand is Singing can confidently take its place amongst the finest. It is a simple, macabre tale that is as fresh and alarming as a drop of blood on a bank of white snow.' (John Millen SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST)

'The undead are at the centre of this atmospheric tale, but Sedgwick wisely avoids calling them vampires, a term which too readily conjures the capes and pointed teeth of cartoon graphics. The threat - not spoken of by the village people, but all too evident in the fears, the closed doors, the garlic and buckthron stakes - is all the more powerful for being understated.' (Linda Newbery TES)

'an interesting read which focuses on the original myth of vampires. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes a good story with interesting characters.' (Scott Shanks, age 14 SUNDAY HERALD)

À propos de cette édition

• Éditeur: Orion Children's Books
• Date d'édition: 2006
• ISBN 10: 1842551833
• ISBN 13: 9781842551837
• Reliure: Relié
• Numéro d'édition: 1
• Nombre de pages: 224