
By Malve von Hassell, 19 – 22 March
- Purchase link: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08BJ7TQVW/
- Genre: Middle grade to young adult historical fiction
- Print length: 173 Pages
- Age range: 11 – 15 years
- Formats available for the Tour: pdf
- Trigger warnings: One reference to a father committing suicide. Scenes relating to the Christian Crusades reflect cultural beliefs prevalent at the time (12th Century) about adherents of other faiths.
.
About Alina : A Song for the Telling
“You should be grateful, my girl. You have no dowry, and I am doing everything I can to get you settled. You are hardly any man’s dream.” Alina’s brother, Milos, pulled his face into a perfect copy of Aunt Marci’s sour expression, primly pursing his mouth. He had got her querulous tone just right.
I pinched my lips together, trying not to laugh. But it was true; Aunt Marci had already introduced me to several suitors. So far I had managed to decline their suits politely.
Maybe Alina’s aunt was right. How could she possibly hope to become a musician, a trobairitz, as impoverished as she was and without the status of a good marriage?
But fourteen-year-old Alina refuses to accept the oppressing life her strict aunt wants to impose upon her. When the perfect opportunity comes along for her to escape, she and her brother embark on a journey through the Byzantine Empire all the way to Jerusalem.
Alina soon finds herself embroiled in the political intrigue of noble courts as she fights to realize her dream of becoming a female troubadour.
More: Q and A with the author about Alina: A Song for the Telling
About Malve von Hassell
Malve von Hassell was born in Italy and spent part of her childhood in Belgium and Germany before moving to the United States. She is a freelance writer, researcher, and translator.
She holds a Ph.D. in anthropology from the New School for Social Research. Working as an independent scholar, she published The Struggle for Eden: Community Gardens in New York City (Bergin & Garvey 2002) and Homesteading in New York City 1978-1993: The Divided Heart of Loisaida (Bergin & Garvey 1996). She has also edited her grandfather Ulrich von Hassell’s memoirs written in prison in 1944, Der Kreis schließt sich – Aufzeichnungen aus der Haft 1944 (Propylaen Verlag 1994). She has taught at Queens College, Baruch College, Pace University, and Suffolk County Community College, while continuing her work as a translator and writer.
She has self-published a children’s picture book, Letters from the Tooth Fairy (2012/2020) and her translation and annotation of a German children’s classic by Tamara Ramsay, Rennefarre: Dott’s Wonderful Travels and Adventures (Two Harbors Press, 2012). The Falconer’s Apprentice (namelos, 2015) was her first historical fiction novel for young adults. She has published Alina: A Song for the Telling (BHC Press, 2020), set in Jerusalem in the time of the crusades, and has a forthcoming book, The Amber Crane (Odyssey Books, 2021), set in Germany in 1645 and 1945. Currently, she is working on a biographical work about a woman coming of age in Nazi Germany.
Social media links:
- Twitter: @MvonHassell
- Facebook author page: https://www.facebook.com/malvevonhassellauthor/
- Website: https://www.malvevonhassell.com
- [Blog: Tales through Time]
- https://www.malvevonhassell.com/blog/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/malve-von-hassell-02b61517/
- Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/471746.Malve_von_Hassell
—–
Blackberry Book Tours

Reviewers – please complete the form below if you would like to take part in this Tour : March 19 – 22
a
Join us and receive these badges (after the review is published):