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Sourdough Universe
The Sourdough Compendium
Not yet published
Expected 2 Jun 26Award-winning stories from the world of All the Murmuring Bones and The Briar Book of the Dead, this is a compendium of fantastic tales from the dark gothic heart of the Sourdough universe. Witches, assassins and pirates are brought to life in immersive, sinister and magical prose.
Comprised of three collections (Sourdough and Other Stories, The Bitterwood Bible and Other Recountings and The Tallow-Wife and Other Tales) these mosaic narratives form much of the foundational mythology for the novels All the Murmuring Bones, The Path of Thorns, The Briar Book of the Dead¸ The Crimson Road and A Forest, Darkly.
Within these pages, coffin-makers work hard to keep the dead buried and their own murderous urges in check; poison girls are schooled in the art of marital assassination; books carry forth stories and forbidden secrets; a young witch wreaks a terrible revenge on an old lover; the Little Sisters of St Florian devote their lives to knowledge good and bad; a dying forest god is reinvigorated; mermaids and seamstresses make dangerous bargains; changelings bring havoc. Saints slumber, hind-girls dance across the countryside, bears show their true colours, and the fate of the upper and lower worlds rests on the whim of a volatile plague maiden…
Exquisite, compelling and rich with unforgettable characters, these stories layer and intertwine in the dexterous hands of a master storyteller. All three collections were shortlisted for the World Fantasy Award with The Bitterwood Bible and Other Recountings winning the award. This is beautiful fairy-tale gothic of the most haunting and dangerous kind.
Comprised of three collections (Sourdough and Other Stories, The Bitterwood Bible and Other Recountings and The Tallow-Wife and Other Tales) these mosaic narratives form much of the foundational mythology for the novels All the Murmuring Bones, The Path of Thorns, The Briar Book of the Dead¸ The Crimson Road and A Forest, Darkly.
Within these pages, coffin-makers work hard to keep the dead buried and their own murderous urges in check; poison girls are schooled in the art of marital assassination; books carry forth stories and forbidden secrets; a young witch wreaks a terrible revenge on an old lover; the Little Sisters of St Florian devote their lives to knowledge good and bad; a dying forest god is reinvigorated; mermaids and seamstresses make dangerous bargains; changelings bring havoc. Saints slumber, hind-girls dance across the countryside, bears show their true colours, and the fate of the upper and lower worlds rests on the whim of a volatile plague maiden…
Exquisite, compelling and rich with unforgettable characters, these stories layer and intertwine in the dexterous hands of a master storyteller. All three collections were shortlisted for the World Fantasy Award with The Bitterwood Bible and Other Recountings winning the award. This is beautiful fairy-tale gothic of the most haunting and dangerous kind.
592 pages, Kindle Edition
Expected publication June 2, 2026
688 people want to read
About the author
A.G. Slatter
15 books747 followersAKA Angela Slatter
Angela Slatter is the author of All The Murmuring Bones (Titan Books, purchase links below). That will be followed by The Path of Thorns in 2022. Both are gothic fantasies set in the world of the Sourdough and Bitterwood collections.
In February 2021, Tartarus Press published The Tallow-Wife and Other Tales, the third mosaic collection in the Sourdough world series. In March 2022, The Bone Lantern (a novella set in the Sourdough world) will be published by Absinthe Press (an imprint of PS Publishing).
Angela is also the author of the supernatural crime novels from Jo Fletcher Books/Hachette International: Vigil (2016), Corpselight (2017) and Restoration (2018), as well as ten other short story collections, including The Girl with No Hands and Other Tales, Sourdough and Other Stories, The Bitterwood Bible and Other Recountings, A Feast of Sorrows: Stories, and The Heart is a Mirror for Sinners and Other Stories. Vigil was nominated for the Dublin Literary Award in 2018.
Angela is represented by Meg Davis of the Ki Agency in London: meg@ki-agency.co.uk
She has won a World Fantasy Award, a British Fantasy Award, a Ditmar, two Australian Shadows Awards and seven Aurealis Awards.
Angela’s short stories have appeared in Australian, UK and US Best Of anthologies such The Mammoth Book of New Horror, The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror, The Best Horror of the Year, The Year’s Best Australian Fantasy and Horror, and The Year’s Best YA Speculative Fiction. Her work has been translated into Bulgarian, Chinese, Russian, Italian, Spanish, Japanese, Polish, French and Romanian. Victoria Madden of Sweet Potato Films (The Kettering Incident) has optioned the film rights to one of her short stories (“Finnegan’s Field”).
She has an MA and a PhD in Creative Writing, is a graduate of Clarion South 2009 and the Tin House Summer Writers Workshop 2006, and in 2013 she was awarded one of the inaugural Queensland Writers Fellowships. In 2016 Angela was the Established Writer-in-Residence at the Katharine Susannah Prichard Writers Centre in Perth. She has been awarded career development funding by Arts Queensland, the Copyright Agency and, in 2017/18, an Australia Council for the Arts grant. She teaches for the Australian Writers’ Centre.
She is also the author of the novellas, Of Sorrow and Such (Tor.com) and Ripper (in Horrorology: The Lexicon of Fear).
Angela Slatter is the author of All The Murmuring Bones (Titan Books, purchase links below). That will be followed by The Path of Thorns in 2022. Both are gothic fantasies set in the world of the Sourdough and Bitterwood collections.
In February 2021, Tartarus Press published The Tallow-Wife and Other Tales, the third mosaic collection in the Sourdough world series. In March 2022, The Bone Lantern (a novella set in the Sourdough world) will be published by Absinthe Press (an imprint of PS Publishing).
Angela is also the author of the supernatural crime novels from Jo Fletcher Books/Hachette International: Vigil (2016), Corpselight (2017) and Restoration (2018), as well as ten other short story collections, including The Girl with No Hands and Other Tales, Sourdough and Other Stories, The Bitterwood Bible and Other Recountings, A Feast of Sorrows: Stories, and The Heart is a Mirror for Sinners and Other Stories. Vigil was nominated for the Dublin Literary Award in 2018.
Angela is represented by Meg Davis of the Ki Agency in London: meg@ki-agency.co.uk
She has won a World Fantasy Award, a British Fantasy Award, a Ditmar, two Australian Shadows Awards and seven Aurealis Awards.
Angela’s short stories have appeared in Australian, UK and US Best Of anthologies such The Mammoth Book of New Horror, The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror, The Best Horror of the Year, The Year’s Best Australian Fantasy and Horror, and The Year’s Best YA Speculative Fiction. Her work has been translated into Bulgarian, Chinese, Russian, Italian, Spanish, Japanese, Polish, French and Romanian. Victoria Madden of Sweet Potato Films (The Kettering Incident) has optioned the film rights to one of her short stories (“Finnegan’s Field”).
She has an MA and a PhD in Creative Writing, is a graduate of Clarion South 2009 and the Tin House Summer Writers Workshop 2006, and in 2013 she was awarded one of the inaugural Queensland Writers Fellowships. In 2016 Angela was the Established Writer-in-Residence at the Katharine Susannah Prichard Writers Centre in Perth. She has been awarded career development funding by Arts Queensland, the Copyright Agency and, in 2017/18, an Australia Council for the Arts grant. She teaches for the Australian Writers’ Centre.
She is also the author of the novellas, Of Sorrow and Such (Tor.com) and Ripper (in Horrorology: The Lexicon of Fear).
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
The Sourdough Compendium by A.G. Slater
Rating : 4⭐
Format : eBook 💻
Pages : 592
Duration : 3 days
----------------
Straight up, I really enjoyed this collection, so much so I now want to delve head first into the rest of the novels this collection revolves around.
A selection of 42 short stories full of intrigue, mystery, weirdness and witchcraft. As with all short story collections quality varies throughout, but the variables are much closer, this is pretty much all killer and no filler, every single story left me wanting to know what happens next.
And they are short, beautifully short, short enough to pique interest, reveal the ending and leave you satisfied. And with them being short you can read them quickly and between tasks or chores.
I adored this collection, it's brought a new author to my eyes and a world that I'm eager to delve into and expand my understanding
This is due to be released 2nd of June, if this interests you then add it to you want to read list
----------------
Thank you to Netgalley & The Publisher for the Advanced Review Copy of this book, though I am grateful for the ARC the words above are my own
----------------
You can find more reviews on my blog here : https://bookshelf018.wordpress.com/
----------------
Rating : 4⭐
Format : eBook 💻
Pages : 592
Duration : 3 days
----------------
Straight up, I really enjoyed this collection, so much so I now want to delve head first into the rest of the novels this collection revolves around.
A selection of 42 short stories full of intrigue, mystery, weirdness and witchcraft. As with all short story collections quality varies throughout, but the variables are much closer, this is pretty much all killer and no filler, every single story left me wanting to know what happens next.
And they are short, beautifully short, short enough to pique interest, reveal the ending and leave you satisfied. And with them being short you can read them quickly and between tasks or chores.
I adored this collection, it's brought a new author to my eyes and a world that I'm eager to delve into and expand my understanding
This is due to be released 2nd of June, if this interests you then add it to you want to read list
----------------
Thank you to Netgalley & The Publisher for the Advanced Review Copy of this book, though I am grateful for the ARC the words above are my own
----------------
You can find more reviews on my blog here : https://bookshelf018.wordpress.com/
----------------
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
I'm not sure I like big books, or short stories.... But I like Slatter, a lot, and she made me like both those other things.
I took my time with this one. Going off and reading other books. Coming back for a few more stories.
I loved the dark, magical slightly dangerous world these tales are set in.
Where you don't know who you can trust, and if they're even what they say they are,let alone who!
I really enjoyed how familiar names cropped up, and I almost started building a "family tree" type picture in my head of how everyone was connected.
A great read!
Thanks to netgalley for the free digital copy.
I took my time with this one. Going off and reading other books. Coming back for a few more stories.
I loved the dark, magical slightly dangerous world these tales are set in.
Where you don't know who you can trust, and if they're even what they say they are,let alone who!
I really enjoyed how familiar names cropped up, and I almost started building a "family tree" type picture in my head of how everyone was connected.
A great read!
Thanks to netgalley for the free digital copy.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews