The Bear and the Nightingale (Arden)
(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)
This blog entry originally had the book's title incorrect. This has been corrected.
This was a book group monthly pick.
This is another debut novel and it makes me feel bad that I haven't written one of my own, but that's neither near nor there.
The story takes place in the woods in 15th century Russia, near Moscow at the time of the Golden Horde. I had to remind myself a few times that this wasn't just a wood cabin in the woods because the father of the main character was a lord of sorts (a boyar). There was an entire village there, Lesnaya Zemlya. (There is a translation of this in the back of the book.)
Pyotr Vladimirovich is married to Marina Ivanovna, who is the daughter of the Grand Princ of Moscow and a woman of the forest who had powers. Marina wants to have another child, because she knows it will be a daughter who has the same powers as her mother had, which she herself does not. She knows that she will likely die in childbirth but she chooses the child instead.
Vasilisa, or Vasys, is the main character of the book. She will be able to see all the household and woodland and river spirits, and she leaves them offerings as she gets older.
While she is still an infant, Pyotr goes to Moscow to visit the Crown Prince. He is searching for a wife for himself so that Vasya can have a mother, and for a husband for his daughter Olga. The Crown Prince arranges both, mostly for political reasons, and Pyotr cannot refuse. Olga is wed and goes to Moscow along with Sasha would turns the priesthood against Pyotr's wishes. Pytor marries the Crown Prince's daughter Anna, who is set to join a convent because she sees demons everywhere except in Churches because they can't get in those. She is miserable, but she dutifully weds and gives birth to a daughter, Irina. She loves her daughter and despises her stepdaughter because Anna realizes that Vasya is bewitched and believes that she is evil.
A lot of Russian folklore is mixed in, and none of this bothered or confused me. There is a tale told of a Frost King and a daughter and stepdaughter that you might believe will be played out but doesn't quite. The Frost King approaches Pyotr early on with a gift for Vasya, but the nanny holds onto it until she is grown.
The Bear is the creature that is awakening and who will bring destructon. The Nightengale is the name of an ethereal horse which appears later in the book. I had assume Vasya was going to be this nightengale and the Frost King would be the bear. The Frost King is an ally but not one to be trusted.
The book is the first of a series but it has a definite ending, but there are many characters spread out along Russia that there are many possibilities for the future of the series.
I enjoyed this. Oddly, I was reading this as an ebook and a trade paperback. When I first requested the ebook, it was unavailable, so I reserved the print book. They both came within days of the other.
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