Battle of the Artisans tells the story of Tangtun, a conflicted, artistic twelve-year-old in 5th-century BCE China, who sets out to save his father from a killer. He crosses wits with his macho father and a vengeful king, armed thieves, and disgruntled villagers, and in the process, discovers new powers that rock his Bronze-Age world. In the end, what matters most is not Tangtun’s artistic abilities or his father’s muscles and might but that they realize the strength of acting together.This novel portrays the making of the very real Bells of Marquis Yi, a 2500-year-old National Treasure of China. No one knows exactly why these bells were made, but Bennett provides a well-researched and persuasive solution to the mystery through her story of Tangtun and his village on the Yangtze River.Every historical novel is an imagined introduction to a topic and a time. Battle of the Artisans invites readers to explore further the world and the science of the bells of Marquis Yi, to learn more abou
VERA MAGPIE explores the gap between childhood fantasies of adult life and the stark reality of life in a women's prison. The eponymous narrator, Vera Magpie herself, is serving time for the murder of her three husbands, including Larry, a good man whom she loved, but doomed to die at Vera's hands because she has acquired a taste for murder. In prison, Vera experiences the reality that here are politics and a pecking order, just as in society at large, but here also she finds redemption through literature. Like many women who kill, Vera is a product of her own flawed past. But aspects of this past also count towards her early release from prison, as her new female lawyer successfully argues Battered Women’s Syndrome as a defence.-------------------------------------------------“Vera Magpie depicts pure life, nothing has been included or excluded, only human attitudes, psychology and behaviours have been condensed.”—Muhammad Shanazar “A knockout. This book is a little gem.”—J
