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Friday, November 25, 2011

To add to your TBR: Deathless by Catherynne M. Valente

Whew. I got this one for my birthday this year. It's on my bedside table. Here's the description from Amazon:

Koschei the Deathless is to Russian folklore what devils or wicked witches are to European culture: a menacing, evil figure; the villain of countless stories which have been passed on through story and text for generations. But Koschei has never before been seen through the eyes of Catherynne Valente, whose modernized and transformed take on the legend brings the action to modern times, spanning many of the great developments of Russian history in the twentieth century.

Deathless, however, is no dry, historical tome: it lights up like fire as the young Marya Morevna transforms from a clever child of the revolution, to Koschei’s beautiful bride, to his eventual undoing. Along the way there are Stalinist house elves, magical quests, secrecy and bureaucracy, and games of lust and power. All told, Deathless is a collision of magical history and actual history, of revolution and mythology, of love and death, which will bring Russian myth back to life in a stunning new incarnation.

I love anything based in folklore and I really love folklore that goes beyond the standards that I'm readily familiar with. Plus, I'm not seeing a whole lot of stuff delving deeply into Russian folklore, so Catherynne Valente's latest was a super cool one to come across.

So that's a peek at my TBR stack and hopefully some intriguing reads to add to your own.

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