The Dance Tree is the perfect book club read, as seen on BBC Two’s Between the Covers

‘I absolutely loved this book’ – Elodie Harper, author of The Wolf Den

Lisbet is pregnant, and frightened she will lose this child, too, when the arrival of a stranger upends her world, and promises to change her understanding of love forever.

Ida’s life seems simple – she is married, her family fully formed – but a buried secret threatens to destroy her peaceful existence.

Nethe has just returned from years in exile, punishment for a crime no one will name.

As a mysterious dance plague takes hold of the city of Strasbourg, all three women become entangled in a web of deceit and clandestine passion that has them dancing to a dangerous tune.

‘Intriguing, haunting, beautiful’ – Jennifer Saint, author of Ariadne

‘Exceptionally brilliant. Sensual, compelling’ – Marian Keyes, author Again, Rachel

‘Extraordinary, enthralling’ – Sunday Times

A stunning illustrated edition of the magical bestseller!

Winner of the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize
Winner of the British Book Awards Children’s Book of the Year
Shortlisted for the Branford Boase Award
Shortlisted for the Jhalak Prize

Beautiful, thrilling and magical, Sunday Times bestselling-author Kiran Millwood Hargrave’s critically-acclaimed first novel is a modern classic.

‘Absolutely loved it from start to finish’ TOM FLETCHER

‘I read it, I loved it’ MALORIE BLACKMAN

‘Kiran Millwood Hargrave creates a spellbinding world of magic, myth and adventure’ EMMA CARROLL

Forbidden to leave her island, Isabella dreams of the faraway lands her cartographer father once mapped.

When her friend disappears, she volunteers to guide the search. The world beyond the walls is a monster-filled wasteland – and beneath the dry rivers and smoking mountains, a fire demon is stirring from its sleep.

Soon, following her map, her heart and an ancient myth, Isabella discovers the true end of her journey: to save the island itself.

• A beautifully written, multi award-winning story of friendship, discovery, myths and magic for any age – perfect for fans of Philip Pullman, Frances Hardinge or Katherine Rundell
• A perfect gift, illustrated in colour by Olia Muza, and featuring a bonus chapter
• From the author of Julia and the Shark, Leila and the Blue Fox and The Mercies, chosen for the Richard & Judy Book Club
• Set in an extensive and stunningly-imagined parallel world imbued with magical realism

Come with an Arctic fox on a breathtaking journey … an enthralling story from the bestselling, award-winning creators of Julia and the Shark. With dazzling blue and black illustrations and presented as a deluxe hardback with tracing paper inserts, this is a perfect gift for 9+ fans of The Last Bear and A Wolf Called Wander.

She was very tired.

She lay down, her soft head on her soft paws.

The sunset licked her face.

The snow covered her like a blanket.

Fox wakes, and begins to walk. She crosses ice and snow, over mountains and across frozen oceans, encountering bears and birds beneath the endless daylight of an Arctic summer, navigating a world that is vast, wild and wondrous.
Meanwhile, Leila embarks on a journey of her own – finding her way to the mother who left her. On a breathtaking journey across the sea, Leila rediscovers herself and the mother she thought she’d lost, with help from a determined little fox.

Based on the true story of an Arctic fox who walked from Norway to Canada in seventy-six days, a distance of two thousand miles, this compelling, emotional and beautifully illustrated story is the perfect gift for 9+ readers.

Praise for Julia and the Shark:

‘A tale of courage, understanding and compassion’ The Observer

‘Julia and the Shark is deep, beautiful and true. The art shines and the writing soars. A classic from cover to cover’ Eoin Colfer

‘A truly beautiful book, with text and illustrations in perfect harmony. A book to treasure!’ Jacqueline Wilson

The gripping, historical novel from Kiran Millwood Hargrave, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Mercies.

Set in an era of superstition, hysteria, and extraordinary change, and inspired by the true events of a doomed summer, The Dance Tree is an impassioned story of family secrets, forbidden love, and women pushed to the edge.

Strasbourg, 1518. In the midst of a blisteringly hot summer, a lone woman begins to dance in the city square. She dances for days without pause or rest, and as she is joined by hundreds of others, the authorities declare an emergency. Musicians will be brought in to play the Devil out of these women.

Just beyond the city’s limits, pregnant Lisbet lives with her mother-in-law and husband, tending the bees that are their livelihood. And then, as the dancing plague gathers momentum, Lisbet’s sister-in-law Nethe returns from seven years’ penance in the mountains for a crime no one will name.

It is a secret that Lisbet is determined to uncover. As the city buckles under the beat of a thousand feet, she finds herself thrust into a dangerous web of deceit and clandestine passion, but she is dancing to a dangerous tune . . .

‘Extraordinary . . . An exceptionally atmospheric, original story’ – The Sunday Times
‘Spellbinding’ – Elodie Harper, author of The Wolf Den

The storm comes in like a finger snap . . .
1617. The sea around the remote Norwegian island of Vardø is thrown into a vicious storm. A young woman, Maren, watches as the men of the island, out fishing, perish in an instant.

Vardø is now a place of women . . .
Eighteen months later, a sinister figure arrives. Absalom Cornet has been summoned to bring the women of the island to heel. With him travels his young wife, Ursa. In her new home, and in Maren, Ursa encounters something she has never seen before: independent women. But where Ursa finds happiness, even love, Absalom sees only a place flooded with a terrible evil, one he must root out at all costs . . .

For readers of Circe and The Handmaid’s Tale, Kiran Millwood Hargrave’s The Mercies is inspired by real historical events. It is a story about how suspicion can twist its way through a community, about a love that could prove as dangerous as it is powerful.

‘Chilling and page-turning’ – The Times
‘Gripping‘ – Madeline Miller
‘Took my breath away‘ – Tracy Chevalier
‘A beautifully intimate story of friendship, love and hope’ – Douglas Stuart, author of Shuggie Bain
‘Something rare and beautiful’ – Marian Keyes

The storm comes in like a finger snap . . .
Winter, 1617. The sea around the remote Norwegian island of Vardø is thrown into a vicious storm. A young woman, Maren, watches as the men of the island, out fishing, perish in an instant.
Vardø is now a place of women.
Eighteen months later, a sinister figure arrives. Absalom Cornet has been summoned to bring the women of the island to heel. With him travels his young wife, Ursa. In her new home, and in Maren, Ursa encounters something she has never seen before: independent women. But where Ursa finds happiness, even love, Absalom sees only a place flooded with a terrible evil, one he must root out at all costs . . .

‘A beautifully intimate story of friendship, love and hope’
DOUGLAS STUART, AUTHOR OF SHUGGIE BAIN
‘Strong characters, gorgeous settings’
SARAH MOSS, GUARDIAN

‘Beautiful and chilling’ Madeline Miller, author of Circe
‘Took my breath away’ Tracy Chevalier, author of Girl with a Pearl Earring

The magical bestseller: a classic story to read again and again

• Winner of the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize 2017
• Winner of the British Book Awards Children’s Book of the Year 2017
• Shortlisted for the Branford Boase Award
• Shortlisted for the Jhalak Prize

Beautiful, thrilling and magical, Sunday Times bestselling-author Kiran Millwood Hargrave’s critically-acclaimed first novel is a modern classic.

‘Absolutely loved it from start to finish’ TOM FLETCHER

‘I read it, I loved it’ MALORIE BLACKMAN

‘Kiran Millwood Hargrave creates a spellbinding world of magic, myth and adventure’ EMMA CARROLL

Forbidden to leave her island, Isabella dreams of the faraway lands her cartographer father once mapped.

When her friend disappears, she volunteers to guide the search. The world beyond the walls is a monster-filled wasteland – and beneath the dry rivers and smoking mountains, a fire demon is stirring from its sleep.

Soon, following her map, her heart and an ancient myth, Isabella discovers the true end of her journey: to save the island itself.

• A beautifully written, multi award-winning story of friendship, discovery, myths and magic for any age – perfect for fans of Philip Pullman, Frances Hardinge or Katherine Rundell
• From the author of Julia and the Shark and The Mercies, chosen for the Richard & Judy Book Club
• Set in an extensive and stunningly-imagined parallel world imbued with magical realism
• A gorgeous gift with intricate star-chart illustrations throughout – a present for young and old, which will stay with you long after reading

‘One of those timeless stories that feels like a real myth’  SAMANTHA SHANNON

‘FANTASTIC!’ CARRIE HOPE FLETCHER

‘Absolutely stunning’ CATHERINE DOYLE

‘So beautiful and magical’ PIERS TORDAY