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.
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.
And
indeed, crops begin to fail, evil creatures of the forest creep nearer,
and misfortune stalks the village. 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.
As
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.
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Catégories:
Science Fiction & Fantasy - Fantasy Fiction
Volume: 1
Année: 2017
Editeur: Random House Publishing Group
Langue: English
Pages: 323
ISBN 10: 1101885939
ISBN 13: 9781101885932