A new novel of the ancient world - in all its splendour and barbarity - from a hotly talented, prize-nominated rising star.

The Pinkster King and the King of Kongo presents the history of the nation's forgotten Dutch slave community and free Dutch-speaking African Americans from seventeenth-century New Amsterdam to nineteenth-century New York and New Jersey. It also develops a provocative new interpretation of one of America's most intriguing black folkloric traditions, Pinkster. Jeroen Dewulf rejects the usual interpretation of this celebration of a "slave king" as a form of carnival. Instead, he shows that it is a ritual rooted in mutual-aid and slave brotherhood traditions. By placing these traditions in an Atlantic context, Dewulf identifies striking parallels to royal election rituals in slave communities elsewhere in the Americas, and he traces these rituals to the ancient Kingdom of Kongo and the impact of Portuguese culture in West-Central Africa. Dewulf's focus on the social capital of slaves follows the mutual aid to seventeenth-century Manhattan. He suggests a much stronger impact of Manhattan's first slave community on the development of African American identity in New York and New Jersey than hitherto assumed. While the earliest works on slave culture in a North American context concentrated on an assumed process of assimilation according to European standards, later studies pointed out the need to look for indigenous African continuities. The Pinkster King and the King of Kongo suggests the necessity for an increased focus on the substantial contact that many Africans had with European--primarily Portuguese--cultures before they were shipped as slaves to the Americas. The book has already garnered honors as the winner of the Richard O. Collins Award in African Studies, the New Netherland Institute Hendricks Award, and the Clague and Carol Van Slyke Prize.

"King provides a jarring snapshot of children living in bondage. This compellingly written work is a testament to the strength and resilience of the children and their parents".--"Booklist". "King's deeply researched, well-written, passionate study places children and young adults at center stage in the North American slave experience".--"Choice". 16 photos.

After being chosen by a King to be his bride, Lady Iliya is taken to a castle far away to be wed to King Roman. On the night of her wedding, just as she is about to discover the mysteries a man holds, she is kidnapped and taken to an underground world full of strange creatures. The Satyr King, Ramses, wants her not just to be a Queen in his strange world, but to be a sexual Queen in his bed both with him, and others who he will choose. Now it is up to King Roman, with the help of his knights, including young Sir Henry who is also in love with the Queen, to rescue her.

You're beautiful and kind and very smart. But best of all, you're mine. Do you remember the stories your Grandma used to tell you every night about cursed beasts, village beauties, girls in red capes and wolves in disguises? Well, maybe, just maybe... they actually do happen. Maybe, beasts do exist. They do. I would know. I am bound to one. Whom, you may ask? Well, I am mated to the Alpha King. How? You will see. You will live through it with me. I am Theia Anderson. I am just like any one of you, human, alive, and breathing. But unlike any one of you, I've stumbled upon a world that until yesterday... I couldn't even fathom into existence. This is my story.

You know three things, Pacorus: Your 'army' totals only one hundred men and one hundred women. No help is coming. The gods are unreliable allies. Peace has been restored to the Parthian Empire. The king of kings graces Dura with a visit, the son of Spartacus sits on Media's throne, a great army has been assembled to deal with the eastern threat, and Rome is no longer an implacable enemy of Parthia. Pacorus looks forward to enjoying a permanent cessation of hostilities. But the gods abhor peace and so to amuse themselves they lure the King and Queen of Dura to Media to face daunting odds against a mighty foe. Can Pacorus save the new King of Media, prevent Spartacus from unleashing death and destruction on Armenia, and preserve the peace between Parthia and Rome? 'The Slave King' is the tenth volume in the Parthian Chronicles and follows on from 'Amazon'.