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Learn moreNamed a Best Book of the Year by Vox and Autostraddle
Making a much-anticipated return to the world of Hild, Nicola Griffith’s Menewood transports readers back to seventh-century Britain, a land of rival kings and religions poised for epochal change.
Hild is no longer the bright child who made a place in Edwin Overking’s court with her seemingly supernatural insight. She is eighteen, honed and tested, the formidable lady of Elmet, now building her personal stronghold in the valley of Menewood.
But old alliances are fraying. Younger rivals are snapping at Edwin’s heels. War is brewing—bitter war, winter war. Not knowing whom to trust, Edwin becomes volatile and recalls his young advisor to court. There Hild begins to understand the true extent of the chaos ahead—and realizes she must find a way to navigate the turbulence and fight to protect both the kingdom and her own people.
She will face the losses and devastation of total war, and then must summon the determination to forge a radically different path for herself and her people. In the valley, her last redoubt, Hild draws strength from the fierce joy she finds in the natural world, as, slowly, her community takes root. She trains herself and her unexpected allies in new ways of thinking, learning what it means to gather and wield true power. And she prepares for one last wager: risking all on a single throw for a better future.
In the last decade, Hild has become a beloved classic of epic storytelling. Menewood exceeds it in every way.
Nicola Griffith (she/her) is a dual UK/US citizen living in Seattle. She is the author of award-winning novels including Hild and Ammonite, and her shorter work has appeared in Nature, New Scientist, New York Times, etc. She is the founder and co-host of #CripLit, holds a PhD from Anglia Ruskin University, and enjoys a ferocious bout of wheelchair boxing. She is married to novelist and screenwriter Kelley Eskridge.
Reviews
“Redemptive, absorbing, and deeply satisfying.”
—Constance Grady, Vox
“[A] masterpiece of immersion . . . Menewood is everything Hild was in terms of prose craft, depth of research and immensity of feeling. . . Menewood doesn’t feel like a sequel so much as the same book, the same life, spooling a little farther along its path. While I hope not to have to wait another 10 years for another volume, I trust that it would be worth it."
—Amal El-Mohtar, The New York Times Book Review
"Menewood is marvelous. Hild is an epic hero living through extraordinary times yet through her, Nicola Griffith helps us bear witness to our own time and our place within it. I wanted to read for a thousand pages."
—Kelly Link, MacArthur Fellow and Pulitzer-nominated author of The Book of Love
"A wondrous piece of storytelling—mesmerizing and full of heart. Absolutely phenomenal!"
—Lucy Holland, bestselling author of Sistersong and Song of the Huntress
“If Hild showed us that close observation and inference could be mistaken for magic and vision, Menewood convinces us that the magic is embedded in history itself.”
—Gary K. Wolfe, Locus
"Griffith has published only a handful of novels, but each of them has been in some way extraordinary. She writers with a clarity of expression, precision, and force that few writers of my experience can equal ... There are lines and paragraphs that will haunt me for years. Griffith has an incredible talent . . . I deeply admire this book."
—Liz Bourke, Reactor Magazine
"Menewood manages to somehow surpass its beloved predecessor with its rich seventh century British setting, epic scope, and the sheer beauty of Griffith's language."
—Autostraddle
"Menewood is a searing depiction of a world at war, and the ferocious and complicated woman at the center of it."
—Maria Dahvana Headley, author of The Mere Wife and Beowulf: A New Translation
"Griffith follows up Hild with a transportive second volume."
—Publishers Weekly
"[U]nexpected and beautiful. . . Menewood is an even more stunning sequel . . . You leave somewhat dazed and dazzled . . . beauty and crystal clarity makes it an incredibly immersive world to inhabit. It is a book about a strange, singular woman, and her view on the world around her, and it is a marvel."
—Roseanna Pendlebury, Nerds of a Feather
"A propulsive and detailed revenge story. . . the pages turn almost of themselves. This is a magnificent book."
—Catherine Rockwood, Strange Horizons
"Menewood is an absolute triumph. Hild is truly a hero for all women, here and now."
—Carolyne Larrington, Professor of Medieval European Literature at the University of Oxford
"Menewood is a brilliant novel as well as a craft class in world-building, Griffith's novel is so fully realized that we feel as if she had been there."
—Amanda Cockrell, Historical Novel Review
"Lush, textured—another gem of a book."
—Misha Grifka Wander, Ancillary Review