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| Author | Frances Hardinge |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Kamille Freske (Paperback 1st ed) |
| Language | English |
| Subject | Fantasy, Fiction |
| Genre | Children's or young adult fiction, Fantasy novel |
| Publisher | UK: Macmillan US: Abrams Amulet |
Publication date | 8 May 2014 |
| Publication place | United Kingdom |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 416 pp (1st ed Paperback) |
| ISBN | 978-0-330-51973-1 |
| OCLC | 1031707809 |
Cuckoo Song is a children's or young adults' fantasy novel by Frances Hardinge, published on 8 May 2014 by Macmillan in the UK, and by Abrams Amulet in the USA. It won the 2015 Robert Holdstock Award for best fantasy novel,[1] and was short-listed for the 2015 Carnegie Medal.
The story takes place in the early 1920s, a few years after the First World War. It is mainly set in the imaginary English city of Ellchester. Ellchester is beside an estuary, hilly, and has many bridges. It also has a fairy underworld, called the Underbelly, populated by the Besiders, forgotten fairy beings. The Architect built it as a new home for them to move to now hidden secret places in the countryside are becoming rare.
Hardinge tells us that the name of The Grimmer, the pond Triss is rescued from, is taken from the name of a millpond in her grandmother's village, Wickham Skeith in Suffolk. The character of Violet Parish is loosely based on her grandmother, who as a young woman shocked her home village by arriving there riding a motorcycle.[2]
- ^ Barnett, David (2015-10-26). "Frances Hardinge's Cuckoo Song casts spell over British Fantasy awards". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2019-03-03.
- ^ "Cuckoo Song: My Grandmother and the 'Grimmer'". Frances Hardinge's Twisted City. Retrieved 3 March 2019.