Books in the Media
Check out which of our authors have been featured in the press this week!
Jessie Burton was interviewed by the Guardian on some of the books that have inspired her. In the article she discusses reading Rebecca as a young teen, books that influenced her writing and reading Rachel Cusk as a new mother.
LoveReading have called Polly Crosby’s VITA AND THE BIRDS "An elegant yet earthy tale dancing between two timelines and two women trapped within the memories of the past." Liz Robinson writes, “The richly woven plot twists and turns through the two time frames, creating questions and answers. I felt a connection to Eve and Vita, I feared for them, and came to love them as characters. I sank into this book and swam into its deeply dark yet velvety depths. Evocative and memorable, Vita and the Birds sits as a highly recommended Liz Pick of the Month.”
The Fantasy Review interviewed Saara El-Arifi about her Ending Fire Trilogy and the soon-to-be published, THE BATTLE DRUM. On tackling issues of discrimination in the series, Saara responds: “The possibilities of the fantasy genre are what make me love it so much. I chose to tackle and parallel certain themes like class structure, racism and colourism, and yet at the same time I was able to create a queernormative world that is accepting of all genders and sexualities. There is no other genre that could give me the flexibility to create and contour a world in this way. And also magic. Magic rules.”
Saara also mentions her next project and trilogy, Faebound: “Faebound takes place in a world where humans and fae are long dead, survived only by the elves that now rule and fight over the remaining lands. It centres on Yeeran Teila, a colonel who becomes exiled, and her sister Lettle, a seer. Like the Ending Fire trilogy, it engages with my multicultural roots drawing on Arabian and West African lore, it is queernormative (and sapphic) but is on the lighter side of epic fantasy–in content and in weight, clocking in at 380 pages. Though it still deals with some pretty large themes, like occupation and war-torn states, it required less reckoning with the past than the Ending Fire trilogy. I really loved bringing these new characters to life and I’m looking forward to readers getting to know them!”