Baltasar Infante, a bookmaker's apprentice living in 1492 Spain, can weasel out of any problem with a good story. But when he awakens one night to find a monster straight out of his stories peerin
Baltasar Infante, a bookmaker's apprentice living in 1492 Spain, can weasel out of any problem with a good story. But when he awakens one night to find a monster straight out of his stories peering at him through his window, he's in trouble that even he can't talk his way out of. Soon Balthasar is captured by a mysterious arm of the Spanish Inquisition, the Malleus Maleficarum, that demands he reveal the whereabouts of Amir al-Katib, a legendary Moorish sorcerer who can bring myths and the creatures within them to life. Baltasar, of course, doesn't know where the man is—or that Bal himself has the power to summon genies and golems.
Now Baltasar must escape the Malleus Malificarum so he can find al-Katib and help him defeat a dreadful power that may destroy the world as they know it.
SHANA MLAWSKI is a native New Yorker who writes educational materials and tutors middle and high school students. She has written more than a hundred articles for the pop culture website OverthinkingIt.com, some of which have been featured in The Atlantic Monthly, The Guardian, The Huffington Post, and Ms. magazine. She graduated cum laude from Yale with a B.A. in English with a concentration in creative writing, and received a master's in education from Columbia University Teachers College. Hammer of Witches is her first novel.
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