The Blood of Angels - Softcover

Johanna Sinisalo

3.61

1,063 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0720610044 ISBN 13: 9780720610048

Publisher: Peter Owen Publishers, 2014

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The phenomenon of colony-collapse disorder, the sudden mass disappearance of bees, has become so widespread that much of the world although not, as yet, Finland is facing agricultural and ecological disaster. Amateur beekeeper Orvo, devastated by the recent death of his eco-warrior son, finds two of his hives deserted and begins to fear that the epidemic has reached Scandinavia. Then, in the attic of the old barn, he makes a mystical and frightening discovery: a pathway to a parallel world. Is it a hallucination stimulated by sorrow and loss or is it something very real and connected with the bees disappearance? His research teaches him that in practically every culture bees are viewed as half-supernatural messengers that can travel between worlds and are associated with resurrection and the afterlife. He begins to wonder if this portal could reunite him with his dead son and whether he can himself escape the ecological meltdown of this world. The Blood of Angels reworks the Orpheus myth while analysing modern man s need to deny his mortality and raise himself above the rest of nature, to compare himself to the angels but at what price?

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Review:

The Blood of Angels artfully combines existential crisis with environmental crisis --Le Monde

Impressive --Publishers Weekly

Sinisalo's novel engages in a fierce discussion of ecological choices while also imagining an unusually picturesque, Orpheus-tinged search for love beyond death. --Kirkus

Told with a quiet, literary precision and is a welcome addition to the sometimes raucous and violent nature of dystopian literature --Booklist

Award-winning Finnish author Sinisalo (Not Before Sundown; Troll) digs deep into a character who s searching for answers about his child, his life, and what may come after. Stunning prose takes the reader down a twisting path between gritty eco�terrorism and another world, with winged messengers leading the way --Library Journal

About the Author:

Johanna Sinisalo is a Finnish science fiction and fantasy writer who won the James Tiptree Jr. Award, as well as the most acclaimed Finnish literary prize, the Finlandia, for her novel" Troll." Her novel "Birdbrain" was one of "Publishers Weekly"'s Top 10: Science Fiction & Fantasy titles and "Locus"'s Top 10 Fantasy Novels in 2011. She also edited "The Dedalus Book of Finnish Fantasy" and was nominated for a Nebula Award for her short story "Baby Doll."

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