Me and Atrocity

Jamuqa had witnessed, aged fifteen, his tribe strung up on trees. Perhaps you have to go one further.' Jamuqa is mad, and commits an atrocity in challenge of Temujin.His actions – that might have more to do with how he feels about his oath-brother – plunge the Mongols into intertribal war. Temujin's lack of an election, too, has caused controversy and a split into camps. The anti-Tchingis set find his ideas newfangled, while his followers almost worship him. Even Temujin, sad in private, dedicated instead to his public self, fears Tchingis has gotten out of hand.This isn't what Galut Queen had in mind when she put an honest Mongol in government to save the Mongols' traditions. Bryn Hammond (she/her, and queer) lives in a coastal town in Australia, where she likes to write while walking in the sea. She grew up on ancient and medieval epics, the Arthur cycle original and modern, nineteenth-century novelists, particularly Russian and French, and out of fashion poets, namely Algernon Swinburne. Always a writer – to the neglect of other paths in life that might have been more sensible -- she found the perfect story in The Secret History of the Mongols, a thirteenth-century prose and verse account of Chinggis Khan. Both epic and intimate, Amgalant explores the story found in the Secret History of the Mongols. Much of this source is still secret -- neglected in Western accounts. People who knew Temujin gathered their stories into a communal memoir, which even conserves Temujin's own words. This is the inside story.'In a word, the writing is extraordinary... To humanize one of history's most infamous conquerors is not an enviable task.''Hammond's writing is rich, nuanced, humorous... Amgalant is a rare and different, wonderful read.'If you like the historical fiction of Hilary Mantel, Mary Renault or Dorothy Dunnett, the Amgalant series is for you.