Description: ABOUT THE AUTHOR Juliet Marillier was born in New Zealand and raised in the town of Dunedin, which is known as the "Edinburgh of the South," which explains her love of Celtic mythology. Juliet holds advanced degrees in music and languages, and now lives just outside of Perth, in Western Australia, where she is the mother of two daughters and two sons. Her first book, Daughter of the Forest , was published in 2000 to overwhelming critical and public acclaim. IN HER OWN WORDS "Fantasy is escapist: sometimes we don''t much like the world we live in, so we bury ourselves in a genre which conjures a multitude of worlds. And fantasy can be a substitute: in an age of scientific rationalism and dwindling religious faith, it demonstrates clear moral codes; basic choices between good and evil, explorations of light and dark. Still, that doesn''t explain the fascination tales of the unreal, the imagined, and the Otherworldly have held for folk since well before Spenser or Mallory set quill to paper. Celt and Norseman had their epics of magic and mystery, heroism and romance. The Dreaming stories of Australia''s indigenous people and the Icelandic sagas, the Maori creation myths and the lore of the druids hold universal themes; they make sense of the relationship between man and nature, between man and his own kind. They are our key to the world around us. Once, we''d have heard these tales around the fire after nightfall. This shadow time was for listening and reflection, and though the world could be confusing, the tales helped explain it. Folk understood their symbolism as they understood the patterns of planting and reaping, storm and calm, birth and death. In the stories, the very pattern and purpose of existence were encapsulated. Times change. The fantasies we read are now highly developed, cunningly crafted, drawing not on a single shared culture but on our multiplicity of backgrounds. Yet at their heart there are the same universal messages; their symbolism is that of our ancient folklore, a powerful code which we still crave, for all our apparent sophistication. Yes, they entertain and divert; we read them for fun. But in the best of them we recapture something almost lost; a map for our own journey forward." --JULIET MARILLIER ABOUT THE BOOK It is no easy task to take a story as famous and oftrepeated as the Celtic myth of the Swan Brothers, and imbue it with a new and powerful vitality. And yet, Juliet Marillier has done just that with Daughter of the Forest . Her richly imagined world and haunting prose cast an irresistible spell over readers, drawing us deep into the mist-shrouded forests and along the wind-swept shores of the British Isles, back into a time of savage brutality and surprising beauty, when the Fair Folk played their arcane games and magic still walked the land. In the ancient forests of Ireland, Lord Colum of Sevenwaters guards his family and his lands from the ravages of the invading Britons, unaware that his greatest peril lies much closer, hidden in the guise of a newfound love. That danger will become clear only too late, when his six proud, strong sons are magically transformed into swans, and only his youngest child, the girl called Sorcha, can release them from their enchantment. The task Sorcha must first complete is long and arduous, however, and when she is ripped from her homeland and taken into the heart of the enemy''s territory by a Briton lord, it seems her challenge may prove too great. Yet, in this foreign place, Sorcha finds a new strength, an unexpected love, and a deeper understanding of herself and of her people''s place in an inevitably changing world. Hailing the arrival of a fresh and utterly compelling new fantasy voice, Daughter of the Forest is just the first book in what is sure to become a beloved Celtic fantasy trilogy.

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