What is it about Ireland’s past that so haunts the imagination? More than one answer can be found in Michael Scotts’s powerful new collection of 29 tales. To start with, in a newly Christianized Ireland, monks do battle with a devilish monster that has killed a river. All the water in this collection, from rivers to lakes, conceal dangers that men and women would best avoid. Ready to tempt Ireland’s new conquerors—humankind—supernatural forces hide beneath waves, in bogs, in the very land, waiting. With his usual inventiveness, Michael Scott juxtaposes the old and the new, the ancient and modern, showing that in everyday situations, the curses of Ireland’s mythic past lie imp–like, threatening destruction.
Author
Irish-born Michael Scott began writing over thirty years ago, and is one of Ireland's most successful and prolific authors, with over one hundred titles to his credit, spanning a variety of genres, including Fantasy, Science Fiction and Folklore. He writes for both adults and young adults and is published in thirty-seven countries, in over twenty languages. Praised for his “unparalleled contribution to children’s literature,” by the Guide to Children’s Books, Michael Scott was the Writer in Residence during Dublin’s tenure as European City of Culture in 1991, and was featured in the 2006 edition of Who’s Who in Ireland as one of the 1000 most “significant Irish.”
