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  • Published: 30 November 2011
  • ISBN: 9781448100743
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 224

Corbenic





An intriguing reworking of the Grail legend.

Cal has struggled to cope with his mother's drinking and her psychotic episodes since he was six; cooped up in their dirty council flat he dreams of a new life. So when he leaves to live with his uncle Trevor in Chepstow he is ruthless about breaking with the past, despite his mother's despair. But getting off the train at the wrong station he finds himself at the castle of the Fisher King, and from then on moves in a nightmare spiral of predetermined descent into a wasteland of desolation and adventure, always seeking the way back to the Grail he has betrayed. Catherine Fisher has created a gripping and highly moving novel that moves between myth and a contemporary journey of self-knowledge until one becomes indistinguishable from the other. Drawing in Arthurian themes, historical re-enactments and the Four Hallows, Cal's quest for a return to peace of mind is an elaborate and ambitious Grail novel for our time. An important new work from the author of the Book of the Crow

  • Published: 30 November 2011
  • ISBN: 9781448100743
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 224

About the author

Catherine Fisher

Born in Newport, Catherine Fisher gained a B-ed at the University of Wales and became a primary school teacher. She has written poetry and a number of novels for young people. Both her poems and novels have won awards, including the Welsh Arts Council Young Writers' Prize 1989, the Cardiff International Poetry Competition 1989 and the Tir na n'Og Prize 1995, and she was shortlisted for the Smarties Book Prize in 1990. Darkhenge has been long listed for the Carnegie Medal.

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Praise for Corbenic

Catherine Fisher is a writer of rare talent

The Sunday Times

A terrific coming-of-age tale

Daily Telegraph

An elaborate and intricate reworking of the Grail Legend . . . An absorbing story

The Bookseller

Elegiac, mature modern fantasy

Publishers Weekly