Every novelist gets asked, “How long did it take to write your book?” And for many – including me – it’s always a difficult question to answer. There isn’t some particular day when I sit down at my desk, open a calfbound notebook and inscribe “Chapter 1” in neat copperplate, then start making things up. […]

At the end of The Pearl Whisperer, Miranda succeeded in finding Syrsa, but in rescuing her she unwittingly gave the Eye Stone to Oberis: the Eye Stone has the power to give to the one who finds it their hearts desire. After the cruel treatment she received at the hands of Oberis, Syrsa is reluctant […]

The Pearl Whisperer is the first book of Karin Erlandsson’s fantasy quartet ‘The Song of the Eye Stone.’ At the beginning of the novel we are introduced to Miranda. She is a pearl fisher, indeed she confidently believes, and with good reason, that she is the very best pearl fisher. It is the beginning of […]

Lidou is by the standards of Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic, an affluent man. He is also a fortunate man, as he is married to two beautiful women whom he makes love to frequently. At the beginning of the novel he is mulling over whether he will bother to vote in the […]

There are a number of impressive Portuguese writers that English-speaking readers are likely to be familiar with: Camoes, Eca de Queiroz, Saramago and Pessoa. Beyond these four one might encounter readers who have read Portuguese-language Brazilian writers such as Machado de Assis and Jorge Amado, but it is very unlikely if the reader in question […]

In reading about Ancient Greece one of the more interesting classes of people to learn of, are Hetaira. They were a class of prostitute who were among the few cultured and educated women. They were not sought simply for sex, but for intellectual conversation and companionship. They were admitted to the elite male environment of […]

Young Dedalus published its first titles in March 2020. Four books, all of them translations. Just as Dedalus has developed a reputation for publishing neglected classics, great untranslated literature and highly unusual imaginative stories, Young Dedalus was established to publish the neglected classics, great untranslated literature and highly unusual, imaginative stories that the older Dedalus […]

It is hard to think of a new beginning for a publishing company founded thirty-six years ago and with its original founders still in place but that what is happening for Dedalus. At the beginning of a new year a new publisher will be born, Young Dedalus. It begins as an imprint of the existing […]

A nobleman in his slippers wearing a light linen jacket over his pink cotton shirt sits in the library of his manor house, he is scratching his head with his quill looking down forlornly at the sheet of foolscap paper in front of him. His name is Goncalo Mendes Ramires, heir to the most distinguished […]