In the tradition of Justin Cronin, prize-winning author Michael Sala has created a breathtaking new fantasy series with an absorbing cast of flawed heroes and heroines. With its propulsive narrative, and its epic world-building, THE WAR OF THE SHROUD is set to become a publishing sensation.
SHADOW OF THE LOOM
(The War of the Shroud, Book One)
by Michael Sala
Text Publishing, June 2026
The world is fractured. Every night, the Shroud rises from the cracks, a dread mist that devours souls…Or transforms them.
Isa was always viewed with suspicion in her village. Partly because her mother was a foreigner, partly because Isa fell into the Shroud as a child and survived. This animosity has smouldered away, fanned by the village Seer. And when Isa’s father can no longer protect her, she has only the forest for refuge.
Dio’s family is poor, but she knows that when the time comes she will be chosen, elevated to the Weaver caste and trained for mighty deeds. But when her father sells her to a city crime lord to pay his gambling debts, Dio will have only two options: kill or die.
Kyron is destined for greatness. As a Second of the Hyrarchs, he will eventually take his place among the half-dozen most powerful people in the world. Until an act of shocking violence destroys his innate powers, and his life is upended. Now he has to decide who he will betray in order to survive.
These three people, living in different places and times, have never met. But a time of crisis is coming for their world. Between them, they hold its future in their hands.
“The story is a huge feat of imagination, the narrative drags you in powerfully, and the characters are subtly drawn but heroic. It hits all the right notes and just the right amount of new ones – everyone here who’s read any fantasy thinks it is up there with best in class.” (Mandy Brett, senior editor)
Michael Sala is a prize-winning Australian author, whose earlier works have been praised by many, including Raimond Gaita and Hannah Kent. He was born in the Netherlands in 1975 to a Greek father and a Dutch mother, and first came to Australia in the 1980s. His critically acclaimed debut, The Last Thread, won the 2013 NSW Premier’s Award for New Writing and was the regional winner (Pacific) of the 2013 Commonwealth Book Prize.
Alex Wilson hasn’t been back to Indigo Harbor, the seaside village where she grew up, in years. In fact, she can barely remember anything about it. But when her grandmother dies unexpectedly, Alex will have to return to her childhood home to say goodbye.
When his father is abducted by a mysterious figure, twelve-year-old Georgie Summers is thrown into the adventure of a lifetime. Georgie’s journey takes him to Scatterplot, a hidden realm where Scribes record human memories to safeguard the truth. But when the evil Flint Eldritch threatens to corrupt those memories and plunge the world into chaos, Georgie must team up with an unlikely group of friends to stop him. As the journey grows increasingly dangerous, Georgie realizes that only he holds the key to defeating Eldritch and saving not just his father . . . but every mind on Earth.