A press release from Sophie Calder of Gollancz:
 

Known to millions for her general fiction including Chocolat, which was made into an Oscar-nominated film; Blackberry Wine; Five Quarters of the Orange; Coastliners, The Lollipop Shoes amongst many more, Joanne M. Harris has now written a powerful fantasy novel, utilising her passion and her life-long obsession with Norse Mythology.

Joanne, who reads Old Norse, chose Loki, the seductive trickster god as the protagonist for her first epic fantasy because she always thought he might not be as bad as his press.

With his notorious reputation for trickery and deception, and an ability to cause as many problems as he solves, Loki is a Norse god like no other.  Demon-born, he is viewed with deepest suspicion by his fellow gods who will never accept him as one of their own and for this he vows to take his revenge.

Joanne writes “Why Loki? All the books I’d read showed him in a negative light. And he seemed to me the catalyst for all the best tales; a wild and mercurial character whose shift from cheery practical joker to murderer and sociopath reflects the rise and fall of the gods.”

From his recruitment by Odin from the realm of Chaos, through his years as the go-to-man of Asgard, to his fall from grace in the build up to Ragnarok, this is the unofficial history of the world’s ultimate trickster.

The Gospel of Loki is an utterly compelling retelling of Norse mythology voiced by a distinctive and witty narrator.

“Loki, that’s me. Loki the Light -Bringer, the misunderstood, the elusive, the handsome and modest hero of this particular tissue of lies. Take it with a pinch of salt, but it’s as true as the official version, and, dare I say it more entertaining.”

Gollancz is publishing Joanne M. Harris’s The Gospel of Loki as a £14.99 hardback / £7.99 eBook on 13 February 2014.

Joanne M. Harris was seven years old when she joined the library. The first book that she borrowed was a simple retelling of some of the more popular Norse myths. Old Norse stories have remained a life-long obsession for Joanne; she’s even learnt to read ancient Icelandic. She lives with her husband and her daughter in Yorkshire, 15 miles from the place she was born. Joanne writes ‘in a way this little book has taken me over forty years to write. It’s for the child I used to be and the adult I’ve become; for my daughter…and for all the people who are yet to discover the world of Norse mythology”. Please visit www.joanne-harris.co.uk for more information or follow @joannechocolat.