It's by a writer called Naomi Novik who is most well known for writing a series of fantastical counter factual history books about the Napoleonic War, which include air divisions made up of dragons. Not my sort of thing; nothing against dragons, but counter factual history isn't really me. However she has written a couple of stand alone fantasy books based on eastern European folk tales, Uprooted and Spinning Silver. I read Uprooted ages ago and really enjoyed it, although I thought it was a tad too long. Spinning Silver I saw at the library on my last visit before The Great Shutdown so I grabbed it while the grabbing was good.
The premise of Spinning Silver is that a human girl knows how to turn silver into gold. Because of this she's abducted by The Staryk, sort of winter elves, because they need her gift to hep them in their struggle against the demon Chernobog ( a name that will resonate with those who have read Gaiman's American Gods). There are three intertwining stories of young women overcoming adversity; the silver spinner, a duke's daughter given away in marriage to the Tsar for her father's political advancement and a young peasant girl who escapes from an alcoholic and brutal father. I loved it, but possibly not as much as I loved Uprooted.
Talking of Gaiman's American Gods it occurs to me that this might be a good opportunity to get back to 'reading the poster'. It got a bit put behind me in the race to get my thesis done and really hasn't figured much in my life since. I did get one of the books, Kathryn Stockett's The Help, in an audible version, but honestly I got very bogged down and it was easier to listen to other things. But I could go back to it and listen to a short piece each day. Also somewhere about I have John Julius Norwich's The History of Venice and if I can find it, that might make another good kick start to my good intentions!
Sounds interesting - she’s a new name to me.
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