The Wild Girl by Kate Forsyth

The Wild Girl by Kate Forsyth

One of six sisters, Dortchen Wild lives in the small German kingdom of Hesse-Cassel in the early 19th century. She finds herself irresistibly drawn to the boy next door, the handsome but very poor fairy tale scholar Wilhelm Grimm. It is a time of tyranny and terror. Napoleon Bonaparte wants to conquer all of Europe, and Hesse-Cassel is one of the first kingdoms to fall. Forced to live under oppressive French rule, Wilhelm and his brothers quietly rebel by preserving old half-forgotten tales that had once been told by the firesides of houses grand and small over the land.

As Dortchen tells Wilhelm some of the most powerful and compelling stories in what will one day become his and Jacob's famous fairy tale collection, their love blossoms. But Dortchen's father will not give his consent for them to marry and war, death, and poverty also conspire to keep the lovers apart. Yet Dortchen is determined to find a way.

Evocative and richly-detailed, Kate Forsyth's The Wild Girl masterfully captures one young woman's enduring faith in love and the power of storytelling.

KATE FORSYTH is the New York Times bestselling and award-winning author of more than twenty books for children and adults, including The Heart of Stars, The Forbidden Kingdom, The Pool of Two Moons, and The Witches of Eileanan. She is the only author to win five Aurealis Awards in the same year, and she was recently named one of Australia's Top 25 Novelists. Her books have been distributed in 14 different countries. She recently graduated from the University of Technology in Sydney with a doctorate in fairytale retellings. She currently resides in Sydney, Australia.