Vasya can see all of these spirits, the fairytales, myths, and monsters of old–and though no one else can, her family and the people of her father’s lands respect and pay their tributes to the old ones, in stories, bread, and milk.īut all of that changes, when two people enter Vasya’s young life. As the years pass, Vasya grows up wild and strong she learns how to ride horses like the wind, to speak with the hungry rusalka who lures small animals and young men to her pond, to placate the domovoi who mends the household clothes and minds the hearth. But Marina’s greatest hope comes true, for Vasya is no ordinary village girl. Vasilisa, Vasya for short, is born to this family in the woods–and Marina dies in childbirth. You see, Marina is not only a princess (daughter of the Grand Prince of Moscow), but also carries magic in her blood–her wildling, fey-like mother imbued Marina with a gift, one that she knows will pass to her next daughter. He wants for nothing–but Marina yearns for another daughter.

Pyotr Vladimirovich has three healthy sons, a sweet-mannered daughter, and a beautiful wife, Marina, whom he loves deeply. **Full disclosure: Thea works for the parent company, Penguin Random House**Īt the edge of the wild woods of northern Rus’, a boyar and his family live happily (if not to the rich standards of their relatives in Moscow). How did I get this book: Review Copy from the Publisher. 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. At the edge of the Russian wilderness, winter lasts most of the year and the snowdrifts grow taller than houses.

The nightingale a novel book review