BY AVA REID
Dark, complicated yet evocative.
In this compelling and evocative tale woven by Reid, a desolate village girl and a disgraced Prince must fight against the religious zealot of his half-brother from accession to the throne.
Evike is shunned and bullied by others in her pagan community in Keszi for her lack of magical abilities. The King who represents a monotheistic dominant religion in the state called Patrifaith steals a pagan woman each year to gain powers from their blood and bones. So when the Holy order of Woodsman travel through the forest to take a seer (one who can see the future) from Keszi, Evike is offered without remorse. Soon, Evike learns that the captain is not an ordinary woodsman but the Prince, Gaspar Barney.
In a desperate attempt to give his father what he wants and stop his half-brother from taking over the state, Gaspar joins hands with Evike to achieve his goal. Evike, with no family except her Yehuli(fictionalised version of Judaism) father, must work together with a person whom she was taught to deeply hate to save not only her father but also all the small communities of the state from the cruel prince.
The wolf and the woodsman is a richly imagined exploration of faith and folklore that talks about the thin line between faith and madness.
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