The Bear and The Nightingale: (Winternight Trilogy) (Winternight Trilogy, 1)

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Throughout the novel, Vasya meets many strange creatures from Dunya’s fairy tales—­from the domovoi to the rusalka to upyry. Which of the demons that Vasya encounters is your favorite? Which ones would you never want to meet? Katherine Arden: Um, I’m not Orthodox, but when I lived in Russia, I used to go to Orthodox services, because they are very beautiful, and I enjoy the calm of religious ritual. The rest of what I know about Orthodoxy comes from research. Vasya continues to be smarter as she grows and only visits with the house spirits whenever others aren’t around. She particularly befriends a stable spirit and learns how to work with horses from him. 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. The Bear and the Nightingaleis a marvelous trip into an ancient Russia where magic is a part of everyday life.” —Todd McCaffrey

Katherine Arden: I read nonstop as a child, as most writers probably did, and my favorite part of the day was bedtime, because I would lie awake in the dark and make up stories. When I was in high school I wrote a fantasy novel with shapeshifting dragons and a sort-­of-­like-­Iceland world of snow and volcanoes. Katherine Arden: I started drafting The Bear and the Nightingale in the summer of 2011. I had a draft by the summer of 2012 and published it this January 2017. In that time, the book went through a ton of different drafts. When asked why she incorporated so many myths and legends into her novel Arden responded, “Slavic paganism never really disappeared from the Russian countryside after the arrival of Christianity; rather they coexisted, with some friction, for centuries. I was fascinated by the tensions inherent in such a system”. [5] Publication [ edit ] Tufnell, Nicholas (January 24, 2018). "Katherine Arden: It's a great time for female fantasy writers". CNET. Katherine Arden: Very nomadic. I just like new places, and adventures fuel my writing. I went to Russia because I loved the idea of living there, and I wanted to go somewhere completely different and see what it was like. See question one for why I set my novel in Russia.

Stunning, riveting, poetic writing, breathtaking , aesthetic atmosphere, well-rounded, perfectly build characters , dark, compelling approach to the classic fairytales and some lyrical elements of Russian classics you reread at least ten times MAKE YOU FALL IN LOVE WITH THIS BOOK AND LOVE IT WITH YOUR WHOLE HEART COMPASSIONATELY.

Q: Seeing that you are a lover of Russian stories, one must ask: do you prefer Tolstoy or Dostoevsky? The short stories of Gogol or Chekhov? Are there any Russian authors that you feel are underrated or less widely known that you would recommend? Katherine Arden: Still working on book 3. It’s in the pen-and-ink stage. Book 2 is coming out January 2018. Book 3, barring an unlikely disaster, will come out January 2019. Anna is miserable in her new home. She sees demons everywhere just like she did in Moscow, but here the demons stare at her. She only feels safe in the church.

Anna comes to Konstantin to tell him that she’s seeing the demons again. She thought they were gone and is anguished to see them again. He realizes it must be from Vasya. Konstantin is proud that he’s converted so many of the villagers but knows their only hope of survival is if he converts Vasya as well. The spring comes, and it is a wet one in which nothing indoors or outdoors can stay dry. But since I started working on the Middle Ages, I have come to love the era for its own sake. It’s a time of profound change, poorly documented, and big on the mayhem, which makes it really fertile territory for a novelist.

But Vasya’s stepmother only grows harsher, determined to remake the village to her liking and to groom her rebellious stepdaughter for marriage or a convent. As the village’s defenses weaken and evil from the forest creeps nearer, Vasilisa must call upon dangerous gifts she has long concealed—to protect her family from a threat sprung to life from her nurse’s most frightening tales. I’m not even sure where to begin with this story, but I guess I will start by saying that this story is a love letter to stories everywhere. This book is a mash-up retelling of many Russian fairy tales, but with unique spins of them, which are woven together to tell such a beautiful tale that makes me breathless just thinking about how expertly it is crafted. One particular priest (Konstantin) rises up above the others in Moscow. Aleksei decides to send this priest away so he doesn’t become more popular than him. He commissions Konstantin to go to Pyotr’s land to work in the small church there.Rusalka: a water spirit that can be found around lakes. They come in the form of women and their aim is mainly to entice men. In the novel, the rusalka is the first creature to warn Vasya of the priest's danger to the way of life of the villagers. [7] And when I say that this is the perfect winter read, I mean it with everything that I am. Never have I ever read a better seasonal read. Please give this a try in the upcoming months. I promise you, you won’t regret it In a village at the edge of the wilderness of northern Russia, where the winds blow cold and the snow falls many months of the year, an elderly servant tells stories of sorcery, folklore and the Winter King to the children of the family, tales of old magic frowned upon by the church. 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.

Whasser name?” mumbled Alyosha. He was old enough to test the authenticity of fairy tales by seeking precise details from the tellers. Then Vasya’s widowed father brings home a new wife from Moscow. Fiercely devout, Vasya’s stepmother forbids her family from honoring their household spirits, but Vasya fears what this may bring. And indeed, misfortune begins to stalk the village.The various demons and spirits begin to prophesize Vasya’s fate to her in mysterious riddles, and we learn bit by bit that the winter-­king also seems to possess knowledge of what’s to come and the role Vasya is destined to play. What role do you think fate plays in the novel? How much of what happens is the result of choices made by the characters versus an inevitable destiny? Ivan proposes two marriages to Pyotr: his daughter Anna as Pyotr’s wife and his teenage son Vladimir as Olga’s husband. Pyotr accepts both proposals. He remains in the city six more weeks and then begins his journey home with his new wife, his family, and their entourage. 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.