A twenty-first-century corporation invades the domain of a warlike sixteenth-century Scottish clan in this brilliantly imagined time-travel adventure (Philip Pullman). The miraculous invention of a Time Tube has given Great Britains mighty FUP corporation unprecedented power, granting it unlimited access to the rich natural resources of the past. Opening a portal into sixteenth-century Scotland, the company has sent representatives back five hundred years to deal with the Sterkarms, a lawless barbarian clan that has plundered both sides of the English-Scottish border for generations. Among the first of the companys representatives to arrive from the future, young anthropologist Andrea Mitchell finds herself strangely drawn to this primitive tribe of raiders and pillagers who, not surprisingly, view her as magical. As translator and liaison, she becomes enmeshed in the personal lives of these proud, savage folk, developing an especially strong emotional bond with Per, the handsome son of the ruthless Sterkarm chieftain, Toorkild. But the Sterkarms welcome does not extend to the FUP corporate despoilers from the futureand soon a fragile agreement between the untamable Scots and the interloping Elves begins to crumble. Suddenly war looms on the horizon, and when treachery on both sides ignites a firestorm of violence, Andrea will have to choose where her loyalties truly lie: with her coldhearted employers or with the barbarous kinfolk of the man she has come to love. A winner of the Guardian Fiction Prize and a finalist for the Carnegie Medal, called enthralling by Philip Pullman, the author of the His Dark Materials novels, Susan Prices Sterkarm Handshake is a masterful blend of historical and science fiction critics have called dazzling, exciting, memorable, thought provoking, and a thumping good page-turner. [This book description comes from a different edition of this title. Please report any inaccuracies].

 

 

This book is the winner of numerous awards

This book features in the following series: Older Fiction, Sterkarm .

This book has been graded for interest at 9-12 years.

There are 566 pages in this book. This book was published in 2003 by Turtleback Books .

Susan Price is the acclaimed author of many books for children of all ages. In 1987 she won the Carnegie Medal for her novel The Ghost Drum and in 1994 was shortlisted again for Heads and Tales (both Faber). Her work draws inspiration from her native Black Country, where she still lives.