Master storyteller Joanne Harris has created a magical and epic romp– a fresh funny and wonderfully irreverent new take on the old Norse tales sure to be enjoyed by readers young and old. Seven o’clock on a Monday morning five hundred years after the end of the world and goblins had been at the cellar again. . . . Not that anyone would admit it was goblins. In Maddy Smith’s world order rules. Chaos old gods fairies goblins magic glamours – all of these were supposedly vanquished centuries ago. But Maddy knows that a small bit of magic has survived. The “ruinmark” she was born with on her palm proves it – and makes the other villagers fearful that she is a witch (though helpful in dealing with the goblins-in-the-cellar problem). But the mysterious traveler One-Eye sees Maddy’s mark not as a defect but as a destiny. And Maddy will need every scrap of forbidden magic One-Eye can teach her if she is to survive that destiny.
