About the Author

Juliet Marillier was born in New Zealand and brought up in Dunedin, the ‘Edinburgh of the South’. She has a passionate interest in Celtic music and Irish folklore. A mother of two daughters and two sons, she lives in a rural area outside Perth in Western Australia.

Reviews

'Juliet Marillier's intensely romantic first novel takes the reader to an Ireland on the edge, where history and fairy tale meet ... a stunning debut' AMAZON.CO.UK 'I enjoyed it enormously. It is a fantasy, full of the magic of the Celtic night, but it has that wonderful all-important feel of reality ... a wonderful, riveting story' BARBARA ERSKINE on Son of the Shadows

This imaginative retelling of the Celtic Swans myth begins a promising new British romantic fantasy series. Six brothers have been turned into swans by their wicked stepmother. Only their sister, Sorcha, can save these sons of an Irish chieftain by weaving magical shirts that will turn them back into human beings. As she begins her task in the forest, she is raped and forced to flee. British nobleman Hugh of Harrowfield rescues her from the attacker while on a search for his missing brother, Simon, whose life Sorcha has saved earlier. Unfortunately, Sorcha can't reveal to Hugh her role in helping Simon, for she has had to take an oath of silence until she completes the shirts. When she marries Hugh, she assumes a new identity as "Jenny" so that she can return to England. Once there, however, she is thrust into a deadly power struggle among Hugh and his allies; his mother, Anne; and Hugh's wicked uncle, Richard of Northwoods--and she narrowly escapes being burned at the stake for witchcraft and treason. Though the novel features a stereotypically happy ending and leans more toward romance than fantasy, Marillier is a fine folklorist and a gifted narrator who has created a wholly appealing and powerful character in this daughter of the forest. (May) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.