Tatterdemalion

'Exquisite . . . Angela Carter goes feral with Ursula K. Le Guin' (Jay Griffiths): a beautifully illustrated novel rooted in fantasy and folklore, set in a post-apocalyptic California

''It is like a folk tale, but seen in its tattered shreds, glimpsed, then utterly realised in language. It makes me glow; it makes my fur rise'' Jay Griffiths, author of Wild: An Elemental Journey

In a ruined world, what will survive are the stories we tell

Poppy, who speaks the languages of wild things, travels east to the mountains with the wheeled and elephantine beast Lyoobov. He’s seeking answers to the mysteries of his birth, and the origins of the fallen world in which he lives.

Up in the glacial peaks, among a strange, mountainous people, a Juniper Tree takes Poppy deep into her roots and shows him the true stories of the people who made his world, people he thought were only myths. Their tales span centuries, from three hundred years in the future all the way back to our present day. It is through this feral but redemptive folklore that Poppy begins to understand the story of his own past and his place in the present.

Tatterdemalion is a stunning collaboration between writer Sylvia V. Linsteadt and artist Rima Staines, featuring colour reproductions of the fourteen original paintings that inspired the narrative.