After the Forest – Woods Kell (2024)

This lush fantasy retelling of Hansel and Gretel is set in seventeenth-century Germany. Almost twenty years have passed since Greta and her brother Hans escaped the old woman’s cottage in the Black Forest, but there has been no happily ever after. War has taken its toll, leaving husbands and sons dead and the country impoverished. When the local Baron dies, his cruel, young and beautiful wife raises taxes and introduces a Blood Tithe, forcing those unable to pay their debts into servitude. Wolves gather around the village, mercenaries stalk the streets and a black bear is seen in the forest, although its gentle behaviour puzzles Greta. Then bodies are discovered in the woods, drained of blood and with their hearts removed. As desperation grows, whispers of witchcraft spread. Hans’s gambling debts force him to take the Blood Tithe, leaving Greta’s addictively delicious gingerbread, created with the help of a book stolen when they escaped their childhood captor, as their only possible way out. But using this blood skill, Tattermagic, comes at a price that could cost Greta everything. Set in the Black Forest of Württemberg in the mid-seventeenth century, this is a blend of love story, fairy tale, magic and history.