My Swordhand is Singing
by Marcus Sedgwick
Woodcutters Peter and his father Tomas arrive in the lonely village of Chust.
Peter doesn't understand why his father carries a long wooden box around with him, or why he has dug a deep ditch around their hut. But he is increasingly aware of malevolence about the place. Menacing shadows, villagers missing and people murdered only to reappear.
With the help of Sofia, a travelling gypsy, Peter sets out to conquer the evil threat to the village and uncover the secrets of his father's past. Set in the seventeenth century amid the bleakness of winter in Eastern Europe, and inspired by vampire folklore, this is a superbly crafted, dark and menacing tale.
A sense of hardship, bitter cold and fear penetrates the text, resulting in a chilling page-turner.
Publisher: Orion Children's Books
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Marcus Sedgwick
Marcus Sedgwick began to write seriously in 1994, and his first book, Floodland, was published by Orion in 2000, and won the Branford-Boase award for best debut children's novel. Witch Hill followed in 2001, and was nominated for an Edgar Allan Poe Award, the Independent Reading Association award and the Portsmouth Book Award. In 2002 The Dark Horse was shortlisted for the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, The Carnegie Medal and the Blue Peter Book Award.
The Book of Dead Days was nominated for the Guardian Award, and was shortlisted for the Sheffield Book Award and the Edgar Allan Poe Award.
In his spare time, Marcus is a drummer and at the moment play’s the part of Basil Exposition from behind the kit in The International Band of Mystery, an Austin Powers tribute band.
Marcus Sedgwick used to work in children's publishing and before that he was a bookseller. He now happily writes full-time. Marcus lives in Cambridge and has a young daughter, Alice.
http://www.marcussedgwick.com/Marcus_Sedgwick/Home.html
Marcus Sedgwick
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