Black Wine

Why Is There An Old Woman, In A Hanging Cage For Punishment, Keeping A Journal Written In Blood? Candas Jane Dorsey Has Written An Ambitious, Feminist Novel About Women Coming To Terms With Their Identity In A Barbarous Fantasy World. Dorsey's Women Travel Across The World, From The Slave Dens To The Merchant Cities, Across Seas By Ship And By Dirigible, To Isolated Mountain Villages And Back Again. But There Remains Provocative Ambiguity As The Story Progresses. There Is A Woman Exiled From Her Family, A Mother Who Has Abandoned Her Daughter, An Old Woman In A Cage, A Young Women Slave On A Lord's Estate Who Does Not Remember Her Past. How Many Of Them Are The Same Woman? An old woman hangs in a cage; a young woman slaves on a rich lord's estate. How does a woman discover and assert her identity in a primeval, barbaric world? From slave dens to merchant cities to isolated mountains, Candas Jane Dorsey's first novel is a powerful exploration of gender, identity, and freedom. A feminist tale in a fantasy land of slaves and airships. It features Essa, a girl betrothed at birth to the regent. But life in a palace with its stifling rituals is not for her, and she flees into the mountains to become a trader and be independent