- American literature, Russia (federation), fiction, Fiction, general, Magic
At the edge of the Russian wilderness, winter lasts most of the year and the snowdrifts grow taller than houses. But Vasilisa doesn't mind—she spends the winter nights huddled around the embers of a fire with her beloved siblings, listening to her nurse's fairy tales. Above all, she loves the chilling story of Frost, the blue-eyed winter demon, who appears in the frigid night to claim unwary souls. Wise Russians fear him, her nurse says, and honor the spirits of house and yard and forest that protect their homes from evil. After Vasilisa's mother dies, her father goes to Moscow and brings home a new wife. Fiercely devout, city-bred, Vasilisa's new stepmother forbids her family from honoring the household spirits. The family acquiesces, but Vasilisa is frightened, sensing that more hinges upon their rituals than anyone knows. And indeed, crops begin to fail, evil creatures of the forest creep nearer, and misfortune stalks the village. All the while, Vasilisa's stepmother grows ever harsher in her determination to groom her rebellious stepdaughter for either marriage or confinement in a convent. As danger circles, Vasilisa must defy even the people she loves and call on dangerous gifts she has long concealed—this, in order to protect her family from a threat that seems to have stepped from her nurse's most frightening tales. The Bear and the Nightingale is a magical debut novel from a gifted and gorgeous voice. It spins an irresistible spell as it announces the arrival of a singular talent.
Log it
Sign in to log this.
Character
Earnest, grave, classical in form and effortless.
- earnestironic
- gravecomic
- classical in formformally daring
- effortlessdemanding
- resolvedopen-ended
Who loves it, who doesn't
No profiled raters yet.
Ask the title
A yes-or-no question, answered from what people wrote here, on TMDB and on Wikipedia. Never made up.
Reviews
No reviews yet.
About the book
- Author
- Katherine Arden
- First published
- 2017
- Pages
- 368
- Publisher
- Random House Publishing Group, Thorndike Press Large Print, Del Rey
- Editions
- 10
- Language
- Portuguese, English
- ISBN
- 9780399593284
Where to read
Libraries first: a card gets you most books for nothing. Each opens that service’s page for this title.
On Open Library, 35 have read it and 123 want to.
Born in Austin, Texas, Katherine Arden spent her junior year of high school in Rennes, France. Following her acceptance to Middlebury College in Vermont, she deferred enrolment for a year in order to live and study in Moscow. At Middlebury, she specialized in French and Russian literature. After receiving her BA, she moved to Maui, Hawaii, working every kind of odd job imaginable, from grant writing and making crêpes to serving as a personal tour guide. After a year on the island, she moved to Briançon, France, and spent nine months teaching. She then returned to Maui, stayed for nearly a year, then left again to wander. Currently she lives in Vermont, but really, you never know. She is the
Similar in taste
Closest on the same fourteen dimensions, from everything scored on Tastebuds Other media included when they land close.
Where the Crawdads Sing 201876% alikeBoth grave, earnest, classical in form.
Assassin's Apprentice 199573% alikeBoth earnest, classical in form, grave.
Memoirs of a Geisha 199772% alikeBoth grave, earnest, classical in form.
The Outsiders 196772% alikeBoth earnest, classical in form, grave.
Outlander 199171% alikeBoth earnest, grave, classical in form.
The Emperor's Soul 201271% alikeBoth earnest, grave, classical in form.
Rebecca 193871% alikeBoth grave, earnest, classical in form.
Uprooted 201569% alikeBoth classical in form, grave.
The Last Wagon 195688% alikeFilm · Both earnest, classical in form, grave.
Charlotte Gray 200185% alikeFilm · Both earnest, classical in form, grave.