By Satu Sarkas Bosman
Hepsibah, Rikke, Gytha, Muriana, Dalita, Jessamyn and Madame Arkady are just a few of the women inviting you to listen to their stories and join them to walk the winding paths their lives take.
Witchcraft, poisons, love, knowledge, hate, ambition, grief, disappointment, determination, magic and the human endeavour to survive is so elegantly and eloquently written that you cannot be but utterly mesmerised.
This book includes all three A.G. Slatter’s collections; ‘Sourdough and Other Stories’, ‘The Bitterwood Bible and Other Recountings’ and ‘The Tallow-Wife and Other Tales’. Stories interweave and characters’ experiences pour from the pages, often recounting the struggles they face in order to carve their place in the world they inhabit. These pages, all 657 of them, never make you feel like are working your way through a tome but holds your interest until the very last word.
The author also reminds that, for every battle won, there are bitter losses and sacrifices. The women’s voices are strong and clear, but often the course laid before them is difficult and fraught with danger and forfeiture. These stories feel like fairytales, dark and evocative with a sweeping feel of threat. I rooted for these characters and felt for their plight, though many cruel fates made me wish for happier outcomes. Alas, this book is not a gentle lullaby but a sharp song of voices of those who often feel powerless and unheard.
The Sourdough Compendium by A.G. Slatter is available now in various formats.
Bloody Flicks 