By Laura LaVelle, Wonder Shuffle Culture Editor:

Fur Sure

When the days are short and there's hint of snow in the air, it may be time to stay home with a good winter-themed book. Wrap yourself up in a warm blanket, get cozy, pick this one up, and find yourself transported to a village at the edge of a forest in medieval Russia.

This is a fairy tale type story, with a heroine coming of age. Vasya Patrovna, unlike most of the people in her village, can see and speak with the household spirits--which brings her into conflict with her father's new wife from Moscow, a deeply devout Orthodox Christian. (Anna, Vasya's stepmother, also has second sight--but she is terrified of the mythological creatures, believing them to be demons, and believing her step daughter to be an evil witch.)

It was really quite delightful to learn about the various creatures that populated Vasya's environment, invisible to most, but keeping the villagers safe from the true evil dwelling in the forest. I really loved their specificity: guardians of the home, water spirits in lakes, mischievous forest spirits, spirits for bathhouses, spirits for yards. I also really appreciated the depths of the characters--those on the side of evil were not just mindlessly malevolent as in many fairy tales--they had reasons for their behavior, motives that were clear, weaknesses that were exploited.

I could see The Bear and the Nightingale being a good animated movie with all the mythical, folkloric creatures, the beauty of the snow, and the mystery of the forest. Disney would like the strong, brave, young female protagonist facing a conflict with her stepmother...but the whole theme of Christianity vs. traditionalist beliefs really wouldn't fly, I don't think. (Maybe some independent irreligious filmmaker can do it...)

In any case, it's a wild adventure. Katherine Arden studied Russian history and Slavic folklore and used many of the characters she learned about in this novel. The pagan beliefs and the Christian beliefs actually did coincide, not always terribly comfortably, for a long time. There are not many records dating from 14th century Russia; literacy rates were low, educated people were mostly clergy concerned with religious tradition, and as the primary building material was wood, there's not much architectural evidence, either. The author did as best she could with what she knew of old traditions and tales, and made educated guesses on the rest--but as she pointed out in an interview, this circumstance "gives lovely scope to a writer, because you can do your research, align all your facts, step back, and say, well, how do we know this didn't happen?"

NOVEL: The Bear and the Nightingale

AUTHOR: Katherine Arden

YEAR OF PUBLICATION: 2017

IMAGE: book cover, Del Rey Books

About Me

Laura LaVelle is Wonder Shuffle's Culture Editor. A fan of the great indoors, you can find her in her native NYC, her home in Connecticut, or at a concert, play, library, bookstore, or museum just about anywhere in the world.