AustLit

'Chris Womersley's work is, happily, always unpredictable, but City of Crows is a particular surprise. The year is 1673, and Charlotte Picot finds herself doing things that would have been unimaginable when she was living in deep rural France. The plague came to her village, taking almost everyone, including her husband. Charlotte’s other children died of illness years earlier; her focus now was to protect her one remaining child, nine-year-old Nicolas. Charlotte heard Lyon was plague-free, so she and Nicolas began a journey there. (Introduction)

'Historical fiction frequently leads the reader into dark places. Chris Womersley’s haunting novel City of Crows will take you into a nightmare labyrinth where superstition rules and where it seems the Devil calls the tune. The novel recounts the journey of the young widow Charlotte Picot from the south of France to Paris in 1673. There’s murder, child sacrifice, witchcraft, plague, poison, black magic, abortion, executions, torture and Tarot (with pictures). And crows and rats, which provide the occasion for the use of the wonderful verb ‘‘to skitter’’.' (Introduction)

'Women who cast spells and brew potions to dispel illness and fuel desire have historically been vilified as servants of the devil. Contemporary culture has, to a large degree, drained the menace and repositioned witches as figures of frivolity in TV shows such as Charmed and Bewitched and in countless YA stories. This is a problem the reader faces with Chris Womersley’s fourth novel, a commercially adventurous departure from his earlier Australian literary jaunts – is it still possible to take a story about witches seriously?' (Introduction)