Böcker av Jane Gardner

With her mother in a coma from an accident many years before, Julie was living on a farm in the middle of nowhere with her cousins and Uncle Larry who was frequently drunk and abusive.Fed up with his lecherous behaviour she moved in with her new boyfriend Daniel.But things took a turning for the worse when, riveted to the spot, she saw a black shadow near the barn. Was that another one? Were the nightmares plaguing her a sign that history was repeating itself?When she went into the barn to investigate, her knight in shining armour saved her life - this time - but not before the animal had torn her leg apart.When the black beast returned for a second time, intent on killing, it was Julie's turn to face the horror before her and fight for her life and those she loved.But would she come through this nightmare of darkness?

A vital, poetic reimagining of an ancient text. Grendel's Mother, inspired by the famous Anglo-Saxon epic poem Beowulf, gives a voice to the monster's mother. Gardner tells the story in verse, blending the ancient form of epic poetry with modern forms. Grendel's Mother is unnamed in Beowulf, and she remains unnamed here. This seemingly essential lack speaks about the marginalised everywhere. It shows that the unknown and the disregarded can relate their experiences and that their perspectives have value. The poems evoke images of proud warriors, the music of the psaltery, laughter in the mead hall and the sounds of nature, the forest, and the ocean. They also probe the meaning of monstrousness in womanhood and the struggles of a marginalised human being in the harsh world of our ancestors, and, indeed, in any world.