The Sterkarm Handshake is a young adult science fiction novel by Susan Price

Susan Price

Susan Price, born 1955 in Dudley in the West Midlands, is an award-winning English writer of novels for young adults. She also writes for younger children. She still lives in the Black Country.- Writing :...

 which won the 1999 Guardian Children's Fiction Prize. It deals with time travel

Time travel

Time travel is the concept of moving between different points in time in a manner analogous to moving between different points in space. Time travel could hypothetically involve moving backward in time to a moment earlier than the starting point, or forward to the future of that point without the...

 between the 21st and 16th centuries and its effect on the Sterkarms, an ancient Scottish clan

Scottish clan

Scottish clans , give a sense of identity and shared descent to people in Scotland and to their relations throughout the world, with a formal structure of Clan Chiefs recognised by the court of the Lord Lyon, King of Arms which acts as an authority concerning matters of heraldry and Coat of Arms...

.

Plot introduction

A British corporation creates a Time Tube back to the 16th Century Scottish-English border

Anglo-Scottish border

The Anglo-Scottish border is the official border and mark of entry between Scotland and England. It runs for 154 km between the River Tweed on the east coast and the Solway Firth in the west. It is Scotland's only land border...

, initially planning to exploit its untouched mineral resources. The 21st-century travellers represent themselves as magical Elves, and attempt to win the co-operation of the local clan, the Sterkarms.

Title

A "Sterkarm handshake" refers to the treachery of the left-handed Sterkarms, who would offer a right hand to shake in apparent friendship while still wielding a weapon in the left hand.

Plot summary

The Sterkarm Handshake deals with a British corporation, the FUP, who create a Time Tube back to the 16th Century Scottish-English border, initially to exploit its then untouched mineral resources of gold and oil, though they later plan a tourist resort. They fatally underestimate the natives. A local clan, the Sterkarms, are welcoming at first, regarding the 21st-century travellers as magical Elves because of their medicine and technology, but increasingly refuse to cooperate. The clansmen, who have always lived by plunder, begin robbing the FUPs, which leads to the FUP's power-hungry boss kidnapping the only son of the Sterkarm chieftain. The Sterkarms' retaliation is savage.

A young 21st-century anthropologist, Andrea Mitchell, who lives with the Sterkarms as a translator and liaison, finds her loyalties divided when she falls in love with Per Sterkarm.

Sequel

A Sterkarm Kiss, published in 2003, revisits the concept, with FUP this time contacting the Sterkarms of a different dimension in a subtly different 16th century. The corporation attempts to manipulate the Sterkarms by reigniting their rivalry with another clan. Andrea Mitchell returns to the past, but all the people she knew before are now strangers, including her lover Per.

Reception

The Sterkarm Handshake was awarded the 1999 Guardian Children's Fiction Prize. It was also shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal

Carnegie Medal

The Carnegie Medal is a literary award established in 1936 in honour of Scottish philanthropist Andrew Carnegie and given annually to an outstanding book for children and young adults. It is awarded by the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals...

.

Publishers Weekly

Publishers Weekly

Publishers Weekly, aka PW, is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers and literary agents...

wrote that "Price's gripping time-travel adventure cleverly imagines a startling collision of 21st-century technology and 16th-century mores."