Of Battles Past

Mother Hoelun was never ashamed or embarrassed by their hardships. When Jochi wore a dog's pelt for a cloak, because they had no fleeces and no felt and had to trade for hides and dog was cheap, none of the children felt a sense of indignity. Indignity was alien to her.'The Mongols are a people of orphans. A disastrous battle with China has left wives without husbands, children without fathers. Temujin is one of these children, impoverished by the heavy tribute China has punished them with, in danger of forgetting what a Mongol stands for. Worse, Temujin's the subject of a prophecy: that he is to fight that terrible battle over again, except this time with victory.Temujin doesn't believe in prophecies – not when they have to do with him. He's only an ordinary Mongol. But ordinary Mongols have to step up these days, or give in to a grim future. What young Temujin does believe in is his people. While there are Mongols to remember the past there is hope. 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.