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Braken Fences Part 13


By Scots Language Radio

Braken Fences Part 13

Braken Fences, Wolf Kurtoglu’s first novel, has been described as ‘masterful’ (the Blether Region) and ‘the best novel written in Scots in recent times’ (Rab Wilson, Lallans). You can now enjoy listening to this ‘epic tale with believable characters’ in a year long series of exclusive fortnightly podcasts.

The story so far: Beatrice Varshini is returning from a posting deep within the Fundamentalist Zone (FZ), where the Rational World (RW) maintains an old nuclear reactor. She survives an air-crash over the Kunlun Shan mountains, along with Bill Henderson. Beatrice joins a band of brigands, and finds herself an object of interest both to Hsien, a Chinese man who was blinded as a child to accommodate his genetically engineered ability to see heat, and a Neanderthal, Ragoran (Raggle). Raggle’s version of their past is told as if they had stepped out of prehistory, not out of a genetics lab.

Bill sets off alone, but is caught and sold into slavery in a mine. The slaves are rescued by the brigands. In an abandoned village, there is a fire, and a lorry blows up. Hsien is unwell with the effects of the fire. Kamile, the Uigher woman who leads the brigands, knocks him out with liquor and makes Beatrice stay with him. Given the strong feelings between them, things take their natural course, but Hsien has no memory of anything the next morning, and Beatrice, knowing neither of them meant it to happen, keeps it to herself.

A date for your diary:  the first part of Chapter 8 will be podcast on 21 March 2013.

Wulf has a blog here where you can find further information about the novel. The novel can be bought here.