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The Priest, the Assassin, and Archduke Franz Ferdinand
Katharine Quarmby

The Priest, the Assassin, and Archduke Franz Ferdinand

A priest prays for his nation.

A young man, also a nationalist, asks for absolution - for a crime he has not yet committed.

A ruler is about to arrive - to meet his death.

In this short story; based on the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, the trigger for the First World War; Katharine Quarmby tells a thrilling family history of three men whose fates collided one summer day in Sarajevo.

Book Details:

  • Author: Katharine Quarmby
  • On Submission
  • All rights are available
Katharine Quarmby

Katharine Quarmby

  Katharine Quarmby is an award‑winning and prize-listed writer of fiction, non-fiction, journalism and books for children. Her books and long‑form reporting focus on lives lived on the margins. Scapegoat: Why We Are Failing Disabled People won the Ability Media International Prize for Literature, while No Place to Call Home was shortlisted for the Bread and Roses Awad, a book that dug into the lives of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities. Her journalism currently covers long-term cross-border environmental investigations, as well as a more recent return to work on the care system ...
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Book Reviews

  • "The story of “The Priest, the Assassin and Archduke Franz Ferdinand”, by Katharine Quarmby, is a miraculous return to the past, written in a completely unexpected and post modern manner. She returns to the old themes of the murder of Franz Ferdinand, the beginning of the First World War, and asks, who is to blame? These are themes that historians are still debating today, even after one hundred years, and which still burden the Balkan people. But this story is written simply, with excitement and passion, and which is situated in the ethics and morals in the old world in which it belongs. A breathtakingly good story."
    Dragoslav Simic, award-winning Serbian journalist and author
  • "Once again Katharine Quarmby reveals her talent for making the faraway feel vivid and familiar. A quick, compelling read."
    Daniel Pembrey, bestselling author of The Candidate and The Harbour Master
  • "A fascinating story."
    Antonia Young, President - Balkans Peace Park Project Committee UK