The Bear and the Nightingale (The Winternight Trilogy) by Katherine Arden

 

• Paperback: 464 pages
• Publisher: Del Rey (5 Oct. 2017)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 9781785031052
• ISBN-13: 978-1785031052

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Synopsis

Beware the evil in the woods. . .

In a village at the edge of the wilderness of northern Russia, where the winds blow cold and the snow falls many months of the year, an elderly servant tells stories of sorcery, folklore and the Winter King to the children of the family, tales of old magic frowned upon by the church.

But for the young, wild Vasya these are far more than just stories. She alone can see the house spirits that guard her home, and sense the growing forces of dark magic in the woods. . .

 

Review

This has been a surprising few months for me as I have become a huge fan of the magical, fantasy genre after reading The Toymakers  by Robert Dinsdale.  I have been looking for other books in a similar style and came across the Winternight Trilogy by Katherine Arden.  The Bear and the Nightingale is the first book and introduces us to Vasay, who is at the centre of all three books with some of her family.  Vasaly lives out in the wilderness of northern Russia, a harsh environment where they live by the land and in the winter live on very little, to the point of starvation.  This is a place where the people tell the stories of the old fairytales, folklore and myth around the stove at night, and still worship the house spirits and the gods of nature as well as attending church.  Vasya loves these stories and has the unusual ability to see these spirits and converse with them, an ability inherited from her maternal grandmother. With the arrival of a troubled step-mother and a new priest, the balance between the old and new religion shifts and the equilibrium in the natural world is threatened, and the spirits can no longer protect the families, from the darkness in the woods.

The Bear and the Nightingale is a grown up fairytale, very much in the dark style of the Brothers Grimm.  It is dark and magical with an array of monsters and spirits, some good some evil.  We meet the Frost King, the Water spirit, the guardian of the stables, the household spirits, and of course Death. Vasya is the central character, but her brothers and sister also play an important art in her story. She is very much a wild child, prefers to be out in the woods than the  confines to the house, and this gets her into a lot of trouble.  Her relationship with her wonderful nurse, Dunya, and brother Alyosha is endearing ; they are the two people she loves the most and who love her and defend her when she gets into trouble.  Her step-mother also has the gift for seeing the spirits, but for her it a thing to be feared rather than embrace, and punishes Vasay at every opportunity.  The other character I found really interesting was the priest Konstantin, a man revered in Moscow, whose every word was seen as gospel, but when he is sent to the wilderness he struggles with his religion  and to accept the worship of the house spirits so uses his church to install fear into his congregation, to turn away from their pagan beliefs.  However, he does have doubt after a few incidents that he can’t explain.  There is the constant battle not only with his faith but with Vasya, who shows no fear of him and won’t conform.

The Bear and the Nightingale is such a beautifully written book, even the chapter headings are titled in the style of fairytales.  So much detail and research has been done by Katerine Arden into Russian history and folklore, and she brings them to life through her writing.  The plot is multi-faceted, and offers the reader so much in terms of themes; page religion verses christianity, morality, good versus evil.  The detail and descriptive writing, makes this a wonderful book to read, bringing Vasya and her world of spirits  and folklore to life.  There is the balance of light and dark, the harsh wilderness of northern Russian against the bright, light, richness of Moscow, the darkness of winter and the longer summer days and some darker moments, of fear and the antics of the wild Vasay.

The Bear and the Nightingale is a magical, dark and extraordinary book.  A fairytale in its own right, good versus evil, monsters in the dark and a young woman, Vasya, who shows strength, and a belief in herself the makes her standout and be a woman ahead of her time.  This is an enchanting read, full of magic, folklore and realism, I can’t wait to read the next book in the trilogy.