“A beautiful reminder that fairy tales are at their best when they illuminate the precarious balance between lighthearted childhood and the darkness and danger of adulthood.” —School Library Journal (starred review)
Elena Rudina lives in the impoverished Russian countryside, and there is no food. But then a train arrives in the village, a train carrying a cornucopia of food, untold wealth, and a noble family destined to visit the Tsar in Saint Petersburg—a family that includes Ekaterina, a girl of Elena’s age. When the two girls’ lives collide, an adventure is set in motion, an escapade that includes mistaken identity, a monk locked in a tower, a prince traveling incognito, and—in a starring role only Gregory Maguire could have conjured—Baba Yaga, witch of Russian folklore, in her ambulatory house perched on chicken legs.
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“Maguire, a veteran writer of reimagined traditional tales for a new
world, jauntily explores themes no less profound than hunger and
satiety, class and influence, and the sharing of resources in a world
wracked by climate change…This is an epic rich with
references, aphorisms, and advice. An ambitious, Scheherazade-ian novel, rather like a nesting-doll set
of stories, that succeeds in capturing some of the complexities of both
Russia and life itself.”
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Kirkus Reviews (starred review)