Blackfriars/Little, Brown, 24 July 2014
Picador, 28 October 2014
Praise
- "Vivid, richly detailed...a powerful, clever novel. Griffith illuminated the so-called Dark Ages, reconstructing an often alien historical world with great precision." — BBC History Magazine
- "Hild is a book as loving as it is fierce, brilliant and accomplished. To read it felt like a privilege and a gift." — Amal El-Mohtar, NPR
- "In it's ambition and intelligence, Hild might best be compared to Hilary Mantel's novels about Thomas Cromwell." — Jenny Davidson, Bookforum
- "...dazzling… Griffith’s lyrical prose emphasizes the savagery of the political landscape, in which religion, sex, and superstition are wielded mercilessly for personal gain." — Rachel Abramowitz, Paris Review Daily
- "The novel resonates to many of the same chords as Beowulf, the legends of King Arthur, Lord of the Rings, and Game of Thrones—to the extent that Hild begins to feel like the classic on which those books are based." — Neal Stephenson
- "What a fabulous book! I fell into this world completely and was sorry to come out. Truly, truly remarkable." — Karen Joy Fowler
- "Hild is honestly a masterpiece, somehow both super fun/escapist AND deadly serious/deep. It has a lot to say about women's lives, then and now. [...] I can't recommend it highly enough." — Robin Sloan
- "This is one of the truly great novels of the past year. Griffith will seduce you with her lush, fantasy-epic prose, and keep you mesmerized with her well-wrought tale of politics in an age of superstition." — io9.com
- "Vibrant, if brutal... Inventive and vivid." — Washington Post
- "Splendid...not only beautiful but also meaningful... I can hardly wait for the next." — Los Angeles Review of Books
- "Vivid, vital, and visceral, Hild's history reads like a thriller." — Val McDermid
- "You could describe Hild as being like Game of Thrones without the dragons, but this is so much deeper than that, so much richer. A glorious, intensely passionate walk through an entirely real landscape, Hild leads us into the dark ages and makes them light, and tense, and edgy and deeply moving." — Manda Scott
- "Griffith’s narrative flows like a river; Hild’s thoughts and deeds are expressed in pitch-perfect tone, in prose approaching poetry." — Historical Novel Society
- "Hild is the most absorbing and addictive story I've read in years… It’s feminist, intelligent, glorious." — Vulpes Libris
- "The best fictional attempt to recreate Dark Age Britain that I have ever read." — Alex Woolf
- "Seattle writer Nicola Griffith has created a marvel and joy... But it's the book's sheer beauty that will astonish readers." — Nisi Shawl, Seattle Times
- "Hild is magnificent, an urgent, expansive pleasure...a pulse-pounding page-turner." — Lambda Literary Review
About Hild
Hild was real. She was born fourteen hundred years ago in Anglo-Saxon England. Everything we know about her comes from the Venerable Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation, the foundational text of English history. Of that work, a scant five pages refer to Hild. You can read those, translated by Professor Roy M. Liuzza here (Broadview Anthology of British Literature, Vol. 1, Peterborough, ON: Broadview Press, 2006; hosted with permission of the translator).
Extras
The finished book includes a map, glossary, family tree, and an Author's Note which includes a pronunciation guide (though not the Dramatis Personae, which is exclusive here). But if you're reading digitally you might find it useful to download the following to refer to as you go:
Buy
Hild was real. She was born fourteen hundred years ago in Anglo-Saxon England. Everything we know about her comes from the Venerable Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation, the foundational text of English history. Of that work, a scant five pages refer to Hild. You can read those, translated by Professor Roy M. Liuzza here (Broadview Anthology of British Literature, Vol. 1, Peterborough, ON: Broadview Press, 2006; hosted with permission of the translator).
Extras
The finished book includes a map, glossary, family tree, and an Author's Note which includes a pronunciation guide (though not the Dramatis Personae, which is exclusive here). But if you're reading digitally you might find it useful to download the following to refer to as you go:
- map (the final map, by Jeffrey L. Ward, includes roads)
- glossary
- pronunciation guide
- family tree
- dramatis personae
Buy
- US: IndieBound | Amazon | iTunes | Barnes and Noble
- UK: Waterstones | Amazon | iTunes | Kobo
- ANZ: Apple iTunes | Amazon | Google Play | Kobo | JB Hi-Fi
- IND: Flipkart
- Worldwide: independent bookstores recommended by readers
- Macmillan's Hild reading group guide [PDF]
- To the Best of Our Knowledge (audio, NPR)
- Paris Review Daily
- Well Read (video, PBS)
- Conversation my editor, Sean McDonald
- Los Angeles Times
- Tweeds/The Coffin Factory
From the Publisher
Hild is born into a world in transition. In seventh century Britain, small kingdoms are merging, usually violently. A new religion is coming ashore; the old gods are struggling, their priests worrying. Edwin of Northumbria plots to become overking of the Angles, ruthlessly using every tool at his disposal: blood, bribery, belief.
Hild is the king's youngest niece. She has the powerful curiosity of a bright child, a will of adamant, and a way of seeing the world – of studying nature, of matching cause with effect, of observing her surroundings closely and predicting what will happen next – that can seem uncanny, even supernatural, to those around her.
She establishes a place for herself in court as the king’s seer. And she is indispensible – unless she should ever lead the king astray. The stakes are life and death: for Hild, her family and loved ones, and for the increasing numbers of those who seek the protection of the strange girl who can read the world and see the future.
Hild is a young woman at the heart of the violence, subtlety, and mysticism of the early medieval age—all of it brilliantly, and accurately, evoked by Nicola Griffith’s incandescent prose. Working from what little historical record is extant, Griffith has brought a beautiful, brutal world—and one of its most fascinating, pivotal figures, the girl who would become St. Hilda of Whitby—to vivid, absorbing life.
Even more?
Hild is the king's youngest niece. She has the powerful curiosity of a bright child, a will of adamant, and a way of seeing the world – of studying nature, of matching cause with effect, of observing her surroundings closely and predicting what will happen next – that can seem uncanny, even supernatural, to those around her.
She establishes a place for herself in court as the king’s seer. And she is indispensible – unless she should ever lead the king astray. The stakes are life and death: for Hild, her family and loved ones, and for the increasing numbers of those who seek the protection of the strange girl who can read the world and see the future.
Hild is a young woman at the heart of the violence, subtlety, and mysticism of the early medieval age—all of it brilliantly, and accurately, evoked by Nicola Griffith’s incandescent prose. Working from what little historical record is extant, Griffith has brought a beautiful, brutal world—and one of its most fascinating, pivotal figures, the girl who would become St. Hilda of Whitby—to vivid, absorbing life.
Even more?
For even more—more than you could ever want—see these gigantic uber-pages of reviews, interviews, essays and other miscellany.
Honours
I've been startled and delighted by Hild's honours so far. Thank you.
Honours
I've been startled and delighted by Hild's honours so far. Thank you.
- Washington State Book Award, Fiction
- ALA Notable Book, Historical Fiction
- ALA Over the Rainbow Project list, Fiction
- Tiptree Honor Book
- Nebula Award finalist
- Lambda Literary Award finalist
- John W. Campbell Memorial Award finalist
- Bisexual Book Awards finalist
- Guardian Not the Booker longlist
- Seattle Times Best of the Best of 2013
- Huffington Post Best Five Books of 2013
- Book of the Week, The Week
- Book of the Week, Publishers Weekly
- Editor's Choice, Historical Novel Society
This blog has moved.
My blog now lives here:
http://nicolagriffith.com/blog/
