For me this split narrative focus worked well as it allowed a broader picture of events to be painted. Although THE BEAR AND THE NIGHTINGALE is without a doubt Vasya’s story, Arden splits the narrative focus between four characters as they all play a pivotal role in the tale: Vasya, Pytor, Anna, and Father Konstantin. Arden beautifully evokes the hard cold beauty of Russian life in the fourteenth century in a small village, as well as the gross opulence of Moscow’s Tsars. THE BEAR AND THE NIGHTINGALE is a magical Russian fairy tale, but at its heart it is a story about family. Her life changes with the arrival of her father’s second wife, Anna Ivanovna, and Father Konstantin Nikonovich. Vasya isn’t quite like the other girls, not even her elder sister. THE BEAR AND THE NIGHTINGALE follows Vasya, as she grows up, the daughter of a lord in a small Russian village. This debut novel tells the story of a young girl, Vasilisa Petrovna – Vasya to her family: the youngest child of Pytor Vladimirovich and Marina Ivanovna. It has a gorgeous front cover, and the story inside is delightfully magical.

THE BEAR AND THE NIGHTINGALE by Katherine Arden is a beautiful book. 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.Īs 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 family acquiesces, but Vasilisa is frightened, sensing that more hinges upon their rituals than anyone knows.Īnd indeed, crops begin to fail, evil creatures of the forest creep nearer, and misfortune stalks the village.

Fiercely devout, city-bred, Vasilisa’s new stepmother forbids her family from honoring the household spirits. Wise Russians fear him, her nurse says, and honor the spirits of house and yard and forest that protect their homes from evil.Īfter Vasilisa’s mother dies, her father goes to Moscow and brings home a new wife.

Above all, she loves the chilling story of Frost, the blue-eyed winter demon, who appears in the frigid night to claim unwary souls. 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. The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden (UK hardback) (pic via Penguin website)Ī magical debut novel for readers of Naomi Novik’s Uprooted, Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus, and Neil Gaiman’s myth-rich fantasies, The Bear and the Nightingale spins an irresistible spell as it announces the arrival of a singular talent with a gorgeous voice.Īt the edge of the Russian wilderness, winter lasts most of the year and the snowdrifts grow taller than houses.

The bear and the nightingale goodreads