AustLit
Latest Issues
AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'Welcome back to the magic and pathos of Angela Slatter’s exquisitely imagined tales.
'The Bitterwood Bible and Other Recountings returns to the world of Sourdough and Other Stories (Tartarus, 2010), introducing readers to the tales that came before. Stories where coffin-makers work hard to keep the dead beneath; where a plague maiden steals away the children of an ungrateful village; where poison girls are schooled in the art of assassination; where pirates disappear from the seas; where families and the ties that bind them can both ruin and resurrect and where books carry forth fairy tales, forbidden knowledge and dangerous secrets.'
Notes
-
Author's note: The Bitterwood Bible and Other Recountings is intended as a prequel to Sourdough and Other Stories. It was meant to be a sequel, but the tales were to determined to defy me - they insisted upon telling what happened before, to show how the books of Murcianus came to be, how Ella came into the world, where Hepsibah Ballantyne - who appears only as a name on a headstone in Sourdough's Lodellan cemetery - began the chain of events that are traced through the mosaic of this book. Bitterwood expands and builds upon the world of Sourdough and I hope, makes readers feel that are coming home again.
Contents
-
Introduction,
single work
essay
'Now and again, a new writer emerges in the genre whose work immediately stands head-and-shoulders above most of their contemporaries. Angela Slatter is such a writer. And what is even more remarkable is that she has done it, at least so far through her short fiction. In an editing career that has spanned some forty years or so, I have only come across maybe two dozen authors whose work has so immediately impresses me as Angela's did when I first read it.' (Introduction)
- The Coffin-Maker's Daughter, single work short story horror (p. 1-11)
- The Maiden in the Ice, single work short story (p. 12-30)
- The Badger Bride, single work short story (p. 31-52)
- The Burnt Moon, single work short story (p. 53-66)
- By My Voice I Shall Be Known, single work short story fantasy (p. 67-87)
- The Undone and the Divine, single work short story (p. 88-102)
- The Night Stair, single work short story (p. 103-131)
- Now, All Pirates Are Gone, single work short story (p. 132-148)
- St Dymphna’s School for Poison Girls, single work short story fantasy (p. 149-190)
- The Bitterwood Bible, single work short story (p. 191-203)
- Terrible as an Army with Banners, single work short story (p. 204-214)
- By the Weeping Gate, single work short story (p. 215-242)
- Spells for Coming Forth by Daylight, single work short story (p. 243-271)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
-
NRB Reviewers Pick Their Best Books of 2016
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: The Newtown Review of Books , December 2016;
— Review of The Dry 2016 single work novel ; Family Skeleton 2016 single work novel ; Wisdom Tree : Five Novellas 2016 series - author novella ; The Bitterwood Bible and Other Recountings 2014 selected work short story -
Angela Slatter : The Bitterwood Bible and Other Recountings
2015
single work
review
— Appears in: The Newtown Review of Books , August 2015;
— Review of The Bitterwood Bible and Other Recountings 2014 selected work short story -
Writer of Dark Fantasy Carves Out Magical Niche
2014
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 13-14 December 2014; (p. 23)
— Review of The Bitterwood Bible and Other Recountings 2014 selected work short story
-
Writer of Dark Fantasy Carves Out Magical Niche
2014
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 13-14 December 2014; (p. 23)
— Review of The Bitterwood Bible and Other Recountings 2014 selected work short story -
Angela Slatter : The Bitterwood Bible and Other Recountings
2015
single work
review
— Appears in: The Newtown Review of Books , August 2015;
— Review of The Bitterwood Bible and Other Recountings 2014 selected work short story -
NRB Reviewers Pick Their Best Books of 2016
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: The Newtown Review of Books , December 2016;
— Review of The Dry 2016 single work novel ; Family Skeleton 2016 single work novel ; Wisdom Tree : Five Novellas 2016 series - author novella ; The Bitterwood Bible and Other Recountings 2014 selected work short story
Awards
- 2015 joint winner World Fantasy Award — Best Collection With Gifts for the One Who Comes After by Canadian author Helen Marshall.
- 2015 finalist Locus Awards — Collection
- 2014 shortlisted Aurealis Awards for Excellence in Australian Speculative Fiction — Best Collection