The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden

Synopsis:

This is set in medieval Russia and includes Russian folklore. It is the first book in the Winternight trilogy. It is about a young girl, Vasya Petrovna, who has the gift of communicating with mythological creatures. Her mother dies after giving birth to her and had the same spiritual gifts as her.

Vasya lives with her father and brothers in an isolated wood side village. Her father decides to get remarried because Vasya needs a mother to raise her because she is very free-spirited and rebellious. Her father remarries Anna, who also is able to communicate with mythological creatures which she is convinced they are demons.

Anna becomes convinced that Vasya is a witch and is determined to have her either get married or send her to a convent. Eventually, Vasya runs away into the Russian wilderness in order to have her freedom and is an orphan after her father and stepmother both die.

Review:

I loved this book and loved all the descriptions of Russia and the Russian folklore.

“Nothing changes, Vasya. Things are, or they are not. Magic is forgetting that something ever was other than as you willed it.”

“Solovey will take me to the ends of the earth if I ask it. I am going into the world, Alyosha. I will be no one’s bride, neither of man nor of God. I am going to Kiev and Sarai and Tsargrad, and I will look upon the sun on the sea.”

“I would rather die tomorrow in the forest than live a hundred years of the life appointed me.”