Naomi Novik is well-loved for a reason, and that reason is: she's a fucking fantastic writer. Her characters are intensely real, flawed and heroic and lovable. I was particularly impressed in SPINNING SILVER with the way she uses multiple voices to weave a tapestry (or, if we're using spinning metaphors, to ply a thread). And her use of fairy tale elements turned on their head, as in the Jewish woman who works as a moneylender to provide for her family, and the tsar possessed by a demon from birth as a result of his mother's bargain for power. This book is a delight, and the audio version is wonderfully narrated by an actor with the perfect accent for this Russia-tinted tale.
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