Richard Watkins

Banten (eBook, ePUB)

• Format: ePub

Produktbeschreibung

Eve's life with her husband and two children is near perfect, the love between her and Robert as strong as it ever was. When he returns from a business conference in Bali, he brings home a souvenir, a small wooden statue. Robert tells Eve and the children that they should offer the statue gifts, Banten, and in return the statue will protect them. Reluctantly, Eve joins in what seems to be a harmless game.
Still very much lovers, even after years of being married, Eve becomes pregnant, but does not know yet. Eve trusts Robert completely, and assumes that he is removing the offerings before the morning. Each morning though, try as she might, she cannot find out what he does with them. Still, life goes on in their perfect world with their children, Michael and Lucy. The game goes on, but with time there are inevitably nights when they forget.
Odd things start to happen in the village. Rows of dustbins are raided and their contents strewn all over, all except the edible waste, which is gone. Farm animals are not just killed, but torn apart. The closeness she feels in the woods where she had always felt at peace is now oppressive.
Slowly at first, Eve's perfect world descends into chaos and loss. Her world falling apart, Eve can think of nothing but her loss. Her mother, May comes to stay and brings some stability.
The village policeman, Ed, helps to support her, and while they are healing themselves, May finds a book about the rituals of Bali, the witch Rangda, who feeds on unborn children, and the lion god Barong.
Gradually, with the help of her mother and the support from Ed, Eve feels the pain lessen, but the cycle has started and slowly she realises that the price she is expected to pay for protection will only ever get higher.
The strangeness continues and one night Lucy is attacked and burned, but escapes, just. As she flees, Eve awakes in front of the statue, her hand bleeding and her blood now the offering. Waiting with Lucy at the hospital, Eve realises that everything is falling apart and understands finally what is happening.
Ed becomes increasingly infatuated with her and he too is drawn inexorably into the centre of the battle between the gods for the life of her unborn child.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Richard Watkins
• Erscheinungstermin: 19. Februar 2015
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9781310936418
• Artikelnr.: 69915756

Autorenporträt

Richard Watkins works as a nurse in Accident and Emergency. Married with four children (plus hound), he spends his spare time reading, writing or making stupidly small models. He came from a small mill village in Lancashire, but spent much of his childhood mooching around backstage at Bolton Little Theatre and occasionally treading the boards. He now lives in Manchester.