The release date for the English version of 'The Bear and the Nightingale' by
Katherine Arden is Jan 2017. If you enjoy this novel, it is available for buy as a paperback from Barnes & Noble or Indigo, as an ebook on the Amazon Kindle store, or as an audiobook on Audible.
The majority of the year is spent in winter at the border of the Russian wilderness, when snowdrifts reach heights greater than homes. Vasilisa, however, doesn't care since she loves spending the cold evenings cuddled up with her siblings by a fire and hearing fairy stories told by her nurse. She adores the terrifying tale of Frost, the blue-eyed winter demon that emerges in the cold night to seize unsuspecting souls, beyond all else. Her nurse claims that wise Russians revere the spirits of the forest, garden and house that guard their dwellings from evil and dread him.
Vasilisa's father to Moscow and returns with a new bride after the death of her mother. Vasilisa's new stepmother, a very pious urbanite, prohibits her family from paying homage to the home spirits. The family nods, but Vasilisa feels uneasy because she believes that their rituals have more significance than everyone realises.
Indeed, bad luck haunts the town, harvests start to fail, and nefarious woodland animals get closer. In the meanwhile, Vasilisa's stepmother is becoming more and more strict in her efforts to prepare her disobedient stepdaughter for marriage or convent incarceration.
To save her family from a peril that appears to have sprung from her nurse's worst stories, Vasilisa must summon terrible talents she has long hidden and defy even the ones she loves.
A talented and beautiful voice writes a lovely first book, The Bear and the Nightingale. A distinctive skill is about to arrive, and it does so with an enticing enchantment.