The Chatelaine
By (Author) Kate Heartfield
HarperCollins Publishers
HarperVoyager
15th November 2023
20th July 2023
United Kingdom
General
Fiction
Epic fantasy / heroic fantasy
Dark fantasy
Occult fiction
Alternative history fiction
Adventure / action fiction
Narrative theme: Death, grief, loss
Narrative theme: Coming of age
Narrative theme: Love and relationships
813.6
Paperback
384
Width 129mm, Height 198mm, Spine 28mm
260g
Winner of the Aurora Award for Best Novel
Hell is empty and all the devils are here.
The Chatelaine has come.
The year is 1328 and Hell has overrun Bruges. Demons stalk the streets and revenants swarm the walls. The citys men have fallen and only widows remain.
But Hell should fear them.
Margriet de Vos killed her first soldier when she was eleven. She has buried six children and will fight for the daughter left to her. Their only wealth is gone, taken into the inferno. And she will not be stolen from. The Devil be damned.
Together with a man-at-arms with unfinished business, a widow and her forgehammer, and a alderman's wife who escapes with her children, Margriet will raise a raiding party like Hell has never seen.
PRAISE FOR THE CHATELAINE
The novel is written with arresting detail and challenges literary tropes about women. Its roster includes half a dozen complex female characters and one trans male character, all of them captivating, sympathetic, repulsive, flawed, dangerous, selfless, determined, and damaged. They and Heartfield's powerful battle scenes make this well worth the price of admission Publishers Weekly, starred review
PRAISE FOR HEARTFIELD
Armed in Her Fashion is Kate Heartfields debut novel, and what a strange, compelling, genre-bending debut it is. Part horror, part fantasy, part history, and part epic, it combines all of its elements into a commentary on gender, power, and patriarchyenormously fun Liz Bourke, Tor.com
An absorbing novel Heartfield sustains a fine balance between history and fantasy
Guardian
Where fantasy and history meet an entertaining and dark read
Stylist
Reminded me in places of Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. I loved the depth of characterisation and the feel of the magic beautifully written
Elizabeth Chadwick, bestselling and award-winning author of The Summer Queen
Richly imagined and skilfully told, The Embroidered Book is an intricate and spellbinding tale
JJA Harwood, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Shadow in the Glass
The Embroidered Book is superb from its opening scene to its heartbreaking end Politics, magic, love, and sacrifice compete on equal terms in a sweeping, absolutely splendid epic novel about two sisters and familial love. If you like historical feminist fantasy, you will love The Embroidered Book
Lisbeth Campbell, author of The Vanished Queen
Sacrifice, family, dreams, and deep, dark magic, The Embroidered Book is a triumph
Julie E. Czerneda, author of The Gossamer Mage
Kate Heartfield is the author of The Embroidered Book, a historical fantasy novel out in February 2022. Her debut novel won Canada's Aurora Award, and her novellas, stories and games have been shortlisted for the Nebula, Locus, Crawford, Sunburst and Aurora awards. A former journalist, Kate lives near Ottawa, Canada.