StoryGraph Saturday is a weekly thing where I randomly choose a book from my To Read pile on StoryGraph and show it off to remind me that it’s there and to show it to you in case you find it interesting, too.

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Dark Earth
by Rebecca Stott
Historical Fiction
336 pages
Published July, 2022

From The StoryGraph:

A captivating novel about two sisters fighting for survival in Dark Ages Britain that casts a thrilling spell of magic and myth.

The year is 500 AD. Sisters Isla and Blue live in the shadows of the Ghost City, the abandoned ruins of the once-glorious mile-wide Roman settlement Londinium on the bank of the River Thames. But the small island they call home is also a place of exile for Isla, Blue, and their father, a legendary blacksmith accused of using dark magic to make his firetongue swords—formidable blades that cannot be broken—and cast out from the community. When he dies suddenly, the sisters find themselves facing enslavement by the local warlord and his cruel, power-hungry son. Their only option is to escape to the Ghost City, where they discover an underworld of rebel women living secretly amid the ruins. But if Isla and Blue are to survive the men who hunt them, and protect their new community, they will need to use all their skill and ingenuity—as well as the magic of their foremothers—to fight back. 

With an intimate yet cinematic scope, Dark Earth re-creates an ancient world steeped in myth and folklore, and introduces us to unforgettable women who come to vibrant life on the page. A heart-in-mouth adventure full of moments of tenderness, this is a beautiful, profound novel about oppression and power that puts a female perspective on a historical period dominated by men’s stories.

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I’m not sure where I first heard about this book, but after reading the description, I was immediately interested. If you’ve followed this blog for any reasonable length of time, you’ll have figured out that I’m a bit of an Anglophile, especially when it comes to medieval English history. I have this on hold from my library, so whenever a copy comes available, I’ll be digging into it.