Alina – A Song for the Telling
Malve von Hassell
Type: ARC
Genre: Historical fiction, young adult
Word count: 73,215
In the 12th century, Alina, a young aspiring singer-songwriter from Provence, embarks on a pilgrimage east through the Byzantine Empire all the way to Jerusalem. Forced by a manipulative, powerful lord at court into acting as an informer, Alina tries to protect her wayward brother while coming to terms with her attraction to a French knight.
What’s this?
In this coming-of-age story set in the 12th century, a young aspiring singer-songwriter from Provence travels to Jerusalem, where she is embroiled in political intrigue, theft, and murder, and finds her voice. “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.” But Alina refuses to accept the life her aunt wants to impose on her.
At the first opportunity she and her brother embark on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land to pray for their father’s soul and to escape from their aunt and uncle’s strictures. Their journey east takes them through the Byzantine Empire all the way to Jerusalem. Forced by a manipulative, powerful lord at court into acting as an informer, Alina tries to protect her wayward brother, while coming to terms with her attraction to a French knight.
Malve von Hassell is a freelance writer, researcher, and translator. Her publications include three historical fiction novels for young adult readers, The Falconer’s Apprentice (namelos, 2015), Alina – A Song for the Telling (BHC Press, 2020/KDP 2025), and The Amber Crane (Odyssey Press, 2021) as well as the biography of a woman coming age in Nazi Germany, Tapestry of My Mother’s Life: Stories, Fragments, and Silences (Next Chapter Publishing, 2021). Her most recent book is The Price of Loyalty: Serving Adela of Blois (Historium Press, 2025).
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