Product details
- ISBN 9781842555583
- Format: Paperback
- Weight: 200g
- Dimensions: 129 x 197mm
- Publication Date: 08 Apr 2010
- Publisher: Hachette Children's Group
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Paperback
- Language: English
- Age Group: Ages 12+
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An original interpretation of the timelessly fascinating vampire myth, and a story of father and son, by award-winning author Marcus Sedgwick. Winner of the Booktrust Teenage Prize and shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal.
In the bitter cold of an unrelenting winter, Tomas and his son, Peter, arrive in Chust. Despite the villagers' lack of hospitality, they settle there as woodcutters. But there are many things Peter does not understand. Why does Tomas dig a channel of fast-flowing waters around their hut so they live on an isolated island? Why does Tomas carry a long battered box everywhere they go - and refuse to tell Peter of its contents?
When a band of gypsies comes to the village, Peter's drab existence is turned upside down. He is infatuated by the beautiful gypsy princess, Sofia, and intoxicated by her community's love of life. He even becomes drawn into their deadly quest - for these travellers are Vampire Slayers, and Chust is a community to which the dead return to wreak revenge on the living.
Stylishly written and set in the forbidding and remote landscapes of the 17th century, this is a story of a father and his son, of loss, redemption and resolution.
Marcus Sedgwick (8 Apr 1968 - 15 Nov 2022) was the winner of many prizes, most notably the 2014 Michael L. Printz Award for his novel Midwinterblood. Marcus also received two Printz Honors, for Revolver in 2011 and The Ghosts of Heaven in 2016, giving him the most citations to date for America's most prestigious book prize for writing for young adults. Other notable award-winning books include Floodland, Marcus' first novel, which won the Branford-Boase Award in 2001; My Swordhand is Singing, which won the Booktrust Teenage Prize for 2007, and Lunatics and Luck, part of The Raven Mysteries series, which won a Blue Peter Book Award in 2011.
Marcus' books have been shortlisted for over forty other awards, including the Carnegie Medal (seven times), the Edgar Allan Poe Award (twice) and the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize (four times). He has been nominated for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award three times, in 2016, 2017 and 2018.
Marcus was Writer in Residence at Bath Spa University for three years, reviewed for The Guardian newspaper and taught creative writing at Arvon and Ty Newydd. He judged numerous books awards, including the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize and the Costa Book Awards.
