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The Hawthorn Crown
The Hawthorn Crown
Nov 12, 2025 8:17 AM

Author:Helen Falconer

The Hawthorn Crown

Every story needs a hero. Every hero needs a friend.

Carla never believed Aoife's tales of fairies, monsters and changeling girls. But she faithfully followed her best friend down into the dangerous fairy world - to rescue a boy, and save a kingdom.

Until Aoife sent Carla spinning back to the human world, terrified for her safety. But as Aoife faces demons and death alone, Carla has her own battles at home - creatures to defeat and boys to protect. And it's not long before the promised war between humans and fairies explodes onto the fields of rural Ireland.

Whilst Aoife will fight for the Hawthorn Crown in the Land of the Young, Carla must use all her ingenuity and skill to protect the village she grew up in - the village she loves.

Every story needs its heroes . . .

Reviews

At once a satire of post-1989 politics and a love story, it shows two sides of the author: firebrand and mellowed, humane observer... The Call of The Toad shows Grass as one of our greatest living storytellers

—— Financial Times

Mr Grass has a more lyrical, a more glorious sense of locality than any other novelist today

—— New York Times

With The Call of the Toad, Grass brings the fable landscape of the Europe of his lifetime up to date

—— Financial Times

A funny, wise, hugely enjoyable fantasy

—— Financial Times

Number Four is a hero for this generation

—— Michael Bay

Hauser recreates one of the oldest tales in Greek myth with great skill and panache.

—— Sunday Times

An enthralling re-telling of Greek myth . . . Hauser's rendering of Atalanta is captivating, the story-telling masterful and engaging. The ancient myths are in good hands!

—— Dr Michael Scott, Associate Professor of Classics and Ancient History at Warwick University

An erudite page-turner.

—— Lady

It’s wonderful how Emily Hauser brings alive this Bronze Age world . . . this is immersive writing, marvellously descriptive and evocative . . . an elegant, exciting and in some ways moving story.

—— Kate Atherton , For Winter Nights

It is Atalanta, determined to prove herself every bit as good as a man, who turns this into a story which speaks to us . . . Despite the will of the gods, she is very clearly in charge of her own destiny. It is this mixture of feminism and self-determination which makes For the Winner a very modern and relevant novel.

—— Historical Novel Society

This is the sort of story I dreamed of covering when I was a journalist. The sort of story for which the phrase You couldn’t make it up was invented. The Adversary takes a deep, mesmerising dive into the darkness of a human soul. There were moments when I truly could not believe what I was reading. But unlike other serial killer noirs sitting on my shelves, this horror is real. And so much more chilling for that.

—— Fiona Barton, author of The Widow

[A] book that fairly struck me over the head was The Adversary… it’s the coexistence of almost unimaginably variant realities within a family that haunts you.

—— Megan Nolan , New Statesman, *Books of the Year*

A remarkably thoughtful and unnerving book...mesmerising

—— Sunday Telegraph

Profoundly disturbing...a remarkable and undoubtedly important book - perhaps even a necessary one

—— Daily Express

A fascinating meditation on Jean-Claude Romand and what his bizarre life might mean... Carrère's inquiry is highly personal, written in lucid prose...the narrative is often mesmerizing, and revealing about the fragility of human relationships

—— New York Times

As a writer, Carrère is straight berserk; as a storyteller he is so freakishly talented, so unassuming in grace and power that you only realize the hold he's got on you when you attempt to pull away... You say: True crime and Literature? I don't believe it. I say: Believe it

—— Junot Díaz

Justifiably considered the French In Cold Blood

—— Paris Review

The sense of dread he conveys is authentic – it is a loss of self, of connection to the world...dystopian

—— London Review of Books

It’s fascinating, watching Carrere dig around in Romand’s inner life… By the end you feel this clever, intriguing book is too good for its banal human subject.

—— Robbie Millen , The Times

Dark, strange, astonishing.

—— Marcel Theroux , Big Issue

A jaw-dropping tale of murder and deception that goes right to the heart of what it means to be human... The perfect antidote to an excess of sunshine

—— Paul Murray, author of THE BEE STING , Observer, *Summer Reads of 2023*

The perfect antidote to Trump.

—— Sarah Churchwell , Guardian

This book is a compelling study of the relationship between artist and spectator, and how suffering feeds into art, and he’s made of it a bravura performance… Extraordinary.

—— Alastair Mabbott , Herald

A haunting, intense and Man Booker International prize-winning novel from a great writer.

—— Mail on Sunday

Incredibly fast paced, and the dialogue comes at you like a machine gun… It is powerful in its own right.

—— Sara Garland , Nudge

Abrasive, unexpected and eventually heartbreaking, it is a masterclass in characterisation and structure, and it beat off some exceptionally strong competition to win the prize… A Horse Walks into a Bar is quite unlike any other Grossman book except in one important respect: it’s another masterpiece.

—— Nick Barley , New Statesman

Excellent.

—— Dara Ó Briain , Observer

Pitch-perfect black comedy

—— Salman Rushdie , Guardian
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