In the footsteps of Margaret Atwood's bestselling Penelopiad comes an intensely autobiographical and timely tale from the Booker Prize-winning author of Possession and The Children's Book.

Recently evacuated to the British countryside and with World War Two raging around her, one young girl is struggling to make sense of her life. She is given a book of ancient Norse legends and her inner and outer worlds are transformed...

The Ragnarok myth, otherwise known as the Twilight of the Gods, plays out the endgame of Norse mythology. It is the myth in which the gods Odin, Freya and Thor die, the sun and moon are swallowed by the wolf Fenrir, and the serpent Jörmungandr eats her own tale as she crushes the world and the seas boil with poison. This epic struggle provided the fitting climax to Wagner's Ring Cycle; Byatt has taken this remarkable finale and used it as the underpinning of a highly personal and politically charged retelling.

This is a landmark work of literature from one of England's truly great writers. It is a book about how stories can shape the life of a child and give us the courage to face our own demise.

Genre: Fantasy