“Voted as the Most Memorable Love Story by Australian voters in books of 2013 on TheReadingRoom.” - TheReadingRoom “Against an intricately-crafted tapestry of early nineteenth-century German daily life and tumultuous, tragic historical events, the story of star-crossed lovers Dortchen Wild and Wilhelm Grimm unfolds with a kind of dreamy, haunting precision.” - Sophie Masson, author of Moonshine and Ashes her prose is effortless to read and her tales ultimately uplifting.” - Booklover Book Reviews (AU) “I wholeheartedly recommend The Wild Girl by Kate Forsyth.

She is the ultimate giver of dreams, taking a fairytale and turning it around to provide even more possibilities.” - Readings (AU) In all her stories there are princesses and wild forests, imagined terrors and real darkness, escapes to be made and arms to fall into. “Kate Forsyth is a storyteller whose books are spun out of magic and folklore. “Like a fairytale, The Wild Girl gives us an explosive and evocative set of truths set within a deceptively simple and delicately written story.” - The Newtown Review of Books Unputdownable!” - Juliet Marillier, author of Daughter in the Forest “History and fairy tale are richly entwined in this spellbinding story. This intriguing look at a little-known historical figure has definite appeal for fairy-tale aficionados.” - Library Journal “Storytelling is at the heart of the narrative. In the bleak pages of history, Forsyth finds a story of enduring love and artistic integrity-her retelling is a fairy tale in itself.” - Kirkus Reviews “A beautiful and often heartbreaking love story that is sure to move and captivate readers.” - Booklist (starred review) Yet Dortchen is determined to find a way.Įvocative and richly-detailed, Kate Forsyth's The Wild Girl masterfully captures one young woman's enduring faith in love and the power of storytelling. But Dortchen's father will not give his consent for them to marry and war, death, and poverty also conspire to keep the lovers apart. Forced to live under oppressive French rule, Wilhelm and his brothers quietly rebel by preserving old half-forgotten tales that had once been told by the firesides of houses grand and small over the land.Īs Dortchen tells Wilhelm some of the most powerful and compelling stories in what will one day become his and Jacob's famous fairy tale collection, their love blossoms. Napoleon Bonaparte wants to conquer all of Europe, and Hesse-Cassel is one of the first kingdoms to fall. She finds herself irresistibly drawn to the boy next door, the handsome but very poor fairy tale scholar Wilhelm Grimm. One of six sisters, Dortchen Wild lives in the small German kingdom of Hesse-Cassel in the early 19th century.