The Night Wages

by Martin Shaw

Bidden or unbidden, initiations come.

The Night Wages is a leap into the mysteries, a deep conversation between father and daughter, a ragged travelogue of a night sea journey to the temple of Aphrodite.

It’s a rumination on how we handle the volatility of romantic love, and how a parent communicates through stories a grief he cannot speak of any other way. Personal and yet mythical, poetic but earthy, this is a new form. The Night Wages provokes archaic images and modern dilemmas, it is the story of someone trying to comprehend the mysteries of their own heart.

Genres: Fiction

Paperback

Published January 1, 2019

About the author

Dr Martin Shaw is an acclaimed teacher of myth. Author of the award-winning Mythteller trilogy (A Branch from the Lightning Tree, Snowy Tower, Scatterlings), he founded the Oral Tradition and Mythic Life courses at Stanford University, whilst being director of the Westcountry School of Myth in the UK.

He has introduced thousands of people to mythology and how it penetrates modern life. For twenty years Shaw has been a wilderness rites of passage guide, working with at-risk youth, the sick, returning veterans and many women and men seeking a deeper life.

His translations of Gaelic poetry and folklore (with Tony Hoagland) have been published in Orion Magazine, Poetry International, Kenyon Review, Poetry Magazine and the Mississippi Review.

Shaw’s most recent books include The Night Wages, Cinderbiter, Wolf Milk, Courting the Wild Twin, All Those Barbarians, Wolferland and his Lorca translations, Courting the Dawn (with Stephan Harding). His essay and conversation with Ai Weiwei on myth and migration was released by the Marciano Arts foundation.

For more on Martin Shaw’s work:
cistamystica.com | drmartinshaw.com | schoolofmyth.com | martinshaw.substack.com

Reviews

[Laurie McNeill · Rating 4 out of 5]

I remember Martin Shaw saying during the telling of a story something along the lines of "There comes a time in very father's life when he looks at his daughter and he sees a wild animal." I think Shaw must be a good dad if he can admit to that. This book is a story of the father-daughter partnership that allows both to grow and change. It is tender and wry, both at the same time, light while addressing deep issues around uncertainty, change, growing up and growing older - amongst many more. This is poetry masquerading as prose; it slips mysteriously past the conscious mind to deliver its substantive message without causing even a ripple.

[Lindsey Light · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked this book. It was stirring, inspiring, abstract and surreal. I loved the way the reality of the authors relationship and journey with his daughter was woven in with the various stories. It is not often I want to read a book again right away after finishing it.

[Granny Swithins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful, haunting, wild eloquence. Stories to nourish the broken hearted.