Amarantha

Amarantha

The queen is dead. And so is Lyria’s voice…

When its queen is murdered, the kingdom of Amarantha is thrown into turmoil and Princess Lyria is struck by a strange illness.

Torn from her comfortable world of books, music, and family, Lyria must journey afar to find a cure, accompanied by the one person she believes she can trust: Dainefin.

Through the mystical Forest of Hatablar to the lost Isle of Cloch, Lyria is confronted by political unrest, spirits, and disturbing visions about the people closest to her. As she begins to unravel the truth about Amarantha’s past, Lyria realises that there is much more to herself — and the world — than she ever thought before.

But can she save her country and herself?

Accompanied by an original soundtrack composed by the author, Amarantha is a Mediterranean fantasy novel full of magic, memorable characters, and a heroine who will stop at nothing to save the people she loves. Visit amarantha.land to listen to or download the soundtrack.

About The Translation Process

Amarantha is a translated novel with a twist…

Usually, a translator will work on a book alone and it will then go straight to an editor. For Amarantha however, we took a different approach: the author (E. R. Traina), translator (Marinella Mezzanotte) and the editors (the Kurumuru Books team) worked on the story together in a creative collaboration!

We, the publishers, would like to thank E. R. Traina for allowing us to publish her novel in this way and for working so closely with us. We would also like to thank Marinella Mezzanotte for her commitment to the translation over the past two years.


Author

Copyright © The Stepping Stones Project

E. R. Traina is an Italian poet, author and translator. She was born in April 1990 in a Sicilian family in Brianza, a place she endured for more than twenty years thanks to frequent trips to her local library and to Milan, where she fell in love with poetry, literature and theatre.

She sings and plays guitar and the accordion, inspired by Irish folk and Mediterranean and South American music. She wanders around, following her projects or the changing of seasons; sometimes she leaves Europe, but she usually comes back. 

She loves islands and ports, and beginning her sentences with “but”. But she hopes people don’t mind.


Translator

Copyright © Marinella Mezzanotte

Marinella Mezzanotte accidentally became a literary translator while she was an artist’s model trying to become a writer. She now translates Italian fiction into English, while still writing and modelling, and wondering where the next accident will take her. Her story Yesterday’s Pies appeared in the 2013 Bridport Prize anthology.