Tatterdemalion - by Sylvia Linsteadt (Paperback)

About the Book

Exquisite . . . Angela Carter goes feral with Ursula K. Le Guin' (Jay Griffiths): a beautifully illustrated novel rooted in fantasy and folklore, set in a post-apocalyptic California

Book Synopsis

In a ruined world, what survives are the stories we tell

Poppy, who speaks the languages of wild things, travels east to the mountains with the wheeled and elephantine beast Lyoobov. He's seeking answers to the mysteries of his birth, and the origins of the fallen world in which he lives.

Up in the glacial peaks, among a strange, mountainous people, a Juniper Tree takes Poppy deep into her roots and shows him the true stories of the people who made his world, people he thought were only myths. Their tales span centuries, from three hundred years in the future all the way back to our present day. It is through this feral but redemptive folklore that Poppy begins to understand the story of his own past and his place in the present.

Tatterdemalion is a stunning collaboration between writer Sylvia V. Linsteadt and artist Rima Staines, featuring the fourteen original paintings that inspired the narrative.

Review Quotes

"[A] remarkable expression of the preciousness of the natural life of the Sierra Nevadas...a heartfelt and effective mix of old lore, current anxieties, and the possibilities of the future." -- Publishers Weekly

About the Author

Sylvia V. Linsteadt is a writer and artist. Her collection of stories, The Gray Fox Epistles, won the James D. Phelan Literary Award from the San Francisco Foundation in 2014. Her other books include The Wonderments of the East Bay and The Lost Worlds of the San Francisco Bay Area. From 2013 to 2016, she ran a stories-in-the-mail business called Wild Talewort, in which she sent myths and folktales rooted in the landscapes of California to the post-boxes of hundreds of subscribers around the world. @WildTalewort

Rima Staines is an artist living in South Devon. She has exhibited paintings internationally, and her artwork has appeared on books, magazines and record covers on both sides of the Atlantic. @tilsamka