Till Golem do us part? NewCon Press acquires The Crafter’s Wife (book news).
NewCon Press has acquired World English rights to The Crafter’s Wife, the debut fantasy novel by Dani Raanan, proving once again that arranged marriages become considerably more complicated when one party is a suspected sorcerer and the house is full of watchful golems.
The standalone novel draws upon Jewish mythology while blending magic, science, political intrigue and a marriage whose honeymoon period appears to involve espionage, possible execution and mutual suspicion. Frankly, it makes arguing over whose turn it is to empty the dishwasher look rather tame.
The story follows Shosha, a 24-year-old woman whose witch-hunting father and magic-fearing king arrange her marriage to the mysterious Crafter. She knows him largely by reputation, which is seldom an ideal foundation for domestic harmony, particularly when the reputation in question includes arrogance, secrecy and the suspected practice of illicit magical arts.
The king believes the Crafter possesses knowledge that could prove useful to the crown. Shosha is therefore ordered to discover his secrets, using her unusual ability to sense magic through its flavour, scent and essence. This sounds rather splendid until one considers the possibility of accidentally walking past an enchanted sewer.
Failure will condemn Shosha’s family to the executioner’s block. Success, however, will result in her new husband’s head being displayed above the palace gates. The wedding gift list was presumably quite short.
Shosha and the Crafter consequently begin their married life engaged in a prolonged game of deception, each trying to survive at the expense of the other. Against their better judgement, they also begin to understand one another, which introduces the dangerous possibility of affection. Fantasy novels have long demonstrated that romance is difficult enough without a suspicious monarch hovering nearby and threatening to redecorate the palace with human remains.
Watching over this uneasy household is the Crafter’s collection of animated humanoids, a living army of golems. Whether they perform any actual housework remains unclear, although an enchanted clay servant capable of carrying a siege engine ought at least to manage the recycling.
NewCon Press describes the novel as likely to appeal to readers of Naomi Novik’s Spinning Silver and Sally Gardner’s The Snow Song. Raanan has combined her interest in science with her fascination for magic and Jewish folklore, particularly the traditions surrounding golems. That promises a version of fantasy in which creation, responsibility and power may matter every bit as much as swords, crowns and people making regrettable bargains in candlelit rooms.
Raanan works as a Research Integrity Manager for a scientific publisher and lives in Leeds with her husband, two children and a large cat said to exercise tyrannical authority over the household. This may prove excellent preparation for writing about arbitrary rulers. Cats have, after all, been perfecting absolute monarchy for several thousand years.
The deal was handled by literary agent John Jarrold, who praised the novel’s wit, characters, setting and treatment of magic. NewCon Press publisher Ian Whates called it a refreshingly different approach to fantasy, combining recognisable ingredients with less familiar material and a fresh perspective.
Here at SFcrowsnest, we are always pleased to see fantasy drawing upon traditions beyond the genre’s heavily strip-mined patch of pseudo-medieval Europe. There are only so many grim northern kings, enchanted swords and taverns called The Slaughtered Badger that civilisation can reasonably sustain.
The Crafter’s Wife currently has no announced publication date, but the premise already offers an intriguing mixture of folklore, romance and peril. It may also establish the golem as fantasy literature’s ultimate marital counsellor: silent, patient and fully capable of putting anyone who raises their voice through a wall. For Shosha and the Crafter, the question is not merely whether their marriage can survive. It is whether either of them can survive the marriage. Which, when one thinks about it, is probably what the king intended all along.
