PERHAPS A GIFT VOUCHER FOR MUM?: MOTHER'S DAY
Born in Austin, Texas, Katherine Arden spent her junior year of high school in Rennes, France. Following her acceptance to Middlebury College in Vermont, she deferred enrolment for a year in order to live and study in Moscow. At Middlebury, she specialized in French and Russian literature. After receiving her BA, she moved to Maui, Hawaii, working every kind of odd job imaginable, from grant writing and making crepes to serving as a personal tour guide. After a year on the island, she moved to Briancon, France, and spent nine months teaching. She then returned to Maui, stayed for nearly a year, then left again to wander. Currently she lives in Vermont, but really, you never know. The Bear and the Nightingale is her debut novel.
An extraordinary retelling of a very old tale. A Russian setting adds a unfamiliar spice to the story of a young woman who does not rebel against the limits of her role in her culture so much as transcend them. A wonderfully layered novel of family roles and the harsh wonders of deep winter magic. -- Robin Hobb A beautiful deep-winter story, full of magic and monsters and the sharp edges of growing up. -- Naomi Novik beautiful literary fairytale...incredibly lyrical prose...a joy to read. Arden opens her imagination wide and succeeds in transporting the reader to an evocative world...with a heroine it's impossible not to love... The Stylist [A]n enchanting wintertime read... fierce and otherworldly[.] Psychologies Magazine Wonderfully inventive Heat Magazine
