MENEWOOD by Nicola Griffith (Picador Books/Macmillan; October 1, 2024) is an upcoming paperback reprint of the fantastically-reviewed 2023 novel which was named a Best Book of the Year by VOX and Autostraddle.
In this second installment of the Hild series, Griffith takes readers on another journey into her intricately built world.
The New York Times says this book is “[A] masterpiece of immersion… Reading Menewood is like opening a door and stepping into another world [...] there’s dreadful violence, yes, and hunger, profound loss; there’s wearying work, but also bristling energy, fierce joy. There’s Hild, still, at the heart of it all, figuring herself out in the vast and rippling pattern around her.”
In the last decade, Hild has become a beloved classic of epic storytelling. Menewood picks up where that journey left off, and exceeds it. In the much anticipated return to the world of Hild, MENEWOOD transports readers back to seventh-century Britain, a land of rival kings and religions poised for epochal change. Hild is no longer the bright child who made a place in Edwin Overking’s court with her seemingly supernatural insight. She is eighteen, now building her personal stronghold in the valley of Menewood. Hild will face the losses and devastation of total war, and then she must find a new strength, the implacable determination to forge a radically different path for herself and her people.
Named a Best Book of the Year by Vox and Autostraddle
Making a much-anticipated return to the world of Hild, Nicola Griffith’s Menewood transports readers back to seventh-century Britain, a land of rival kings and religions poised for epochal change.
Hild is no longer the bright child who made a place in Edwin Overking’s court with her seemingly supernatural insight. She is eighteen, honed and tested, the formidable lady of Elmet, now building her personal stronghold in the valley of Menewood.
But old alliances are fraying. Younger rivals are snapping at Edwin’s heels. War is brewing—bitter war, winter war. Not knowing whom to trust, Edwin becomes volatile and recalls his young advisor to court. There Hild begins to understand the true extent of the chaos ahead—and realizes she must find a way to navigate the turbulence and fight to protect both the kingdom and her own people.
She will face the losses and devastation of total war, and then must summon the determination to forge a radically different path for herself and her people. In the valley, her last redoubt, Hild draws strength from the fierce joy she finds in the natural world, as, slowly, her community takes root. She trains herself and her unexpected allies in new ways of thinking, learning what it means to gather and wield true power. And she prepares for one last wager: risking all on a single throw for a better future.
In the last decade, Hild has become a beloved classic of epic storytelling. Menewood exceeds it in every way.
AUTHOR BIO
Nicola Griffith is a native of Yorkshire, England, now a dual US/UK citizen. Author of nine novels (Ammonite, Slow River, The Blue Place, Stay, Always, Hild, So Lucky, Spear and Menewood) and a multi-media memoir (And Now We Are Going to Have a Party: Liner notes to a writer's early life). Co-editor of the Bending the Landscape series of original queer f/sf/h stories. Essayist. Teacher. Blogger. Founder and co-host of #criplit. Winner of two (2) Washington State Book Award, the Societyof Authors' ADCI Literary Prize, the Los Angeles Times Ray Bradbury Prize, the Nebula, Tiptree, World Fantasy Awards, and six (6) Lambda Literary Awards. She holds a PhD from Anglia Ruskin University, is a wheelchair martial artist, married to writer Kelley Eskridge, and lives in Seattle.
