A simply gorgeous book in every sense.' - Louisa Morgan, author of A Secret History of Witches ' The Sisters of the Winter Wood is a graceful, poetic, deeply moving novel. 'An enthralling debut.' - Lavie Tidhar, author of World Fantasy Award winner Osama emotionally charged, full of sharp historical detail and well-deployed Yiddish phrases.Ambitious and surprising.' - Kirkus 'Rossner's debut weaves a richly detailed story of Jewish identity and sisterhood. 'A first purchase where Leigh Bardugo's Shadow and Bone and Gregory Maguire's Egg and Spoon are popular.' - Library Journal Drawing on true events, folklore, and Christina Rosetti's classic The Goblin Market, Rossner's fairy tale is creepy and moving by turn, full of heart, history, and enchantment' - Publishers Weekly A story of redemption and tragedy, danger and deception, it is very much worth the read.'Starred Review. Rossner’s book blends history, folklore, and fantasy to create a world in which nothing is as it seems. Set in the Jewish community of Dubossary during the pogroms of Russia, its themes are loyalty, acceptance, forgiveness, and community. It is also a tale of love between a bear-man-Jew and a swan-woman-convert. The beautiful writing makes each girl’s voice very compelling, but this is more than a coming-of-age story. Without their parents’ protection, each sister is forced to discover her own strength.Īs the book progresses, Rossner changes more than the perspective of the protagonists: she alters the writing style itself for each sister, masterfully revealing familial character in the narrative of Liba’s prose and Laya’s light poetry. And like every good fairy tale, secrets abound. The forest is filled with all the dangers, heroes, and heroines one would expect from a proper fairy tale, interwoven with the historical dangers facing the Jews of Dubossary. Through maturation, the sisters come to understand how different and alike they really are. The two are on the verge of becoming adults and are left to fend for themselves as their parents set out on a journey.

This coming-of-age novel, which features a bear-man father and a swan-woman mother, is told from the perspective of the sisters Liba and Laya. Embedded with Russian folklore and intertwined with the very real pogroms of Russia, Rossner creates a fantastical world filled with magic, yet deeply rooted in history. A fairy tale set in the forest, at the edge of a city on the border between Ukraine and Moldova, The Sisters of the Winter Wood is the story of two very different sisters.

The sisters of winterwood