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FICTION
Illustration by Saba Joshaghani
OTHERWORLD: Nine Tales of Wonder and Love from Medieval Ireland
(coming from Oxford University Press, fall 2024.)
These nine anonymous medieval tales, more than a thousand years old, tell of mortals and supernatural creatures of the Otherworld –the síd-- who dared to cross the boundary between their parallel worlds in pursuit of love.
The stories are sexier, funnier, and bloodier than later fairtytales and folktales based on them. Bitel, a historian and novelist, translates the Irish originals but also guides modern readers through early medieval Ireland, explaining what they might miss: themes and characters that link the tales, medieval customs and locations, and jokes. Like all good storytellers, Bitel interacts with her readers, interpreting, commenting, and asking for opinions on the originals as she retells them. Nine enchanting drawings by Saba Joshaghani accompany these ravishing tales of wonder and romance.
The Book of Becc
This is the tale of Becc, an orphan and storyteller who sees things that others cannot—not angels or demons, but slices of the everyday lives of other people, from past and future. Set in 8th-century Ireland, when Christianity had finally begun to sink in, the story follows Becc as her visions begin to turn violent. She knows a war is looming, but when, where, and between whom? To find answers, Becc travels to a lively community of scholars, students, vowed monastics, and farmers called Tobur Brigte. Becc finds more than she bargained for: her kinfolk, her identity, the love of her life, and the key to her visions of war—but too late to save her loved ones?
Coming soon from:
The Highwayman
I have almost finished writing a second novel, tentatively called The Highwayman. Imagine a few Bridgertons went to claim their Irish estate in 1804 and encountered the Fey—and, worse, the Fey turned out to be nationalist rebels.