Spinning silver
Record details
- ISBN: 9780399180989
- ISBN: 0399180982
- ISBN: 9781984817556
- ISBN: 1984817558
- ISBN: 9780399180996
- ISBN: 0399180990
-
Physical Description:
print
466 pages ; 22 cm - Edition: First edition.
- Publisher: New York, N.Y. : Del Rey, [2018]
- Copyright: ©2018
Content descriptions
Summary, etc.: | Miryem is the daughter and granddaughter of moneylenders, but her father's inability to collect his debts has left his family on the edge of poverty--until Miryem takes matters into her own hands. Hardening her heart, the young woman sets out to claim what is owed and soon gains a reputation for being able to turn silver into gold. When an ill-advised boast draws the attention of the king of the Staryk--grim fey creatures who seem more ice than flesh--Miryem's fate, and that of two kingdoms, will be forever altered. Set an impossible challenge by the nameless king, Miryem unwittingly spins a web that draws in a peasant girl, Wanda, and the unhappy daughter of a local lord who plots to wed his child to the dashing young tsar. But Tsar Mirnatius is not what he seems. And the secret he hides threatens to consume the lands of humans and Staryk alike. Torn between deadly choices, Miryem and her two unlikely allies embark on a desperate quest that will take them to the limits of sacrifice, power, and love. |
Language Note: | Text in English. |
Awards Note: | Alex Award winner, 2019. |
Search for related items by subject
Genre: | Fantasy fiction. Fantasy fiction. Fantasy fiction. Fantasy fiction. Fairy tales. Fantasy fiction. Contes de fées. |
Available copies
- 45 of 46 copies available at Bibliomation. (Show)
- 1 of 1 copy available at Killingly Library.
Holds
- 1 current hold with 46 total copies.
Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Status | Due Date |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Killingly Library | F Nov (Text) | 34040141943361 | Adult Fantasy | Available | - |
Electronic resources
Library Journal Review
Spinning Silver : A Novel
Library Journal
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Miryem is the progeny of moneylenders, but her family is impoverished because of her father's inability to collect his debts. Wanda's father abuses her and her brothers, drinking away the household's income. Irina knows she is plain and of little help to her father, and that her only choice in life is to wait for marriage. Through these three women, Novik (Uprooted) addresses weighty questions of power, choice, prejudice, beauty, and identity with aplomb. While magic certainly plays a role here, Novik provides opportunities for these protagonists to save themselves, too. Each woman encounters magic for benefit or ill: the ability to change silver to gold, portals to an icy world, a house that exists in multiple realms, a demon, or an ice king. Each must decide what they will sacrifice to rescue their people. Echoes of the Rumpelstiltskin fairy tale as well as Greek and Slavic myths are transformed through Novik's skillful writing. Ultimately narrated through six distinct voices, her tale moves deftly among stories that ebb and flow and occasionally brush against one another. VERDICT This masterly, immersive high fantasy tale is grounded in real-world challenges and opportunities for growth. Highly recommended for fans of Novik's previous titles or fairy-tale -retellings.-Katie Lawrence, Grand Rapids, MI © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publishers Weekly Review
Spinning Silver : A Novel
Publishers Weekly
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
This gorgeous, complex, and magical novel, grounded in Germanic, Russian, and Jewish folklore but richly overlaid with a cohesive, creative story of its own, rises well above a mere modern re- imagining of classic tales. Novik (Uprooted) begins the story through the eyes of Miryem, a Jewish moneylender's daughter, whose pride in her ability to wring payments from borrowers draws the demanding attention of the terrifying, otherworldly, and rules-bound Staryk, who are ruled by a wintry, gold-loving king. Secondary characters-a peasant boy, a duke's daughter, a tsar-eventually become narrators, weaving interconnections that feel simultaneously intimate and mythic. Novik probes the edges between the everyday and the extraordinary, balancing moods of wonder and of inevitability. Her work inspires deep musings about love, wealth, and commitment, and embodies the best of the timeless fairy-tale aesthetic. Readers will be impressed by the way Novik ties the myriad threads of her story together by the end, and, despite the book's length, they will be sad to walk away from its deeply immersive setting. This is the kind of book that one might wish to inhabit forever. (July) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
School Library Journal Review
Spinning Silver : A Novel
School Library Journal
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Although he's a moneylender, Miryem's compassionate father has allowed the villagers to avoid paying their debts while his own family starves in the cold. With her mother sick in bed, Miryem steels herself and travels door to door demanding payment. Though she faces prejudice and anger because of her gender and Jewish faith, tenacious Miryem soon takes over as town moneylender, earning a reputation as a shrewd businesswoman who can turn silver into gold. Hearing of her skill, a Staryk (cruel, fairylike creatures from the winter realm) lord visits Miryem and demands that she turn his silver into gold. If she succeeds, he will make her his queen, but if she fails, an icy death awaits. What starts as a quest to survive soon morphs into a mission to save the human and winter kingdoms. As with Uprooted, Novik infuses a fairy-tale concept with Eastern European traditions and weaves everything into a comfortingly familiar yet stunningly unique work. This magical tale is a story of strong women overcoming hardship through perseverance, intelligence, family, and faith. With each chapter told from a different perspective, this masterly work pulls readers into the characters' world, making it impossible not to root for them. VERDICT Recommended for teens who love fairy tales and readers who appreciate complex, character-driven narratives that build slowly to a satisfying conclusion.-Lara Goldstein, Orange -County Public Libraries, NC © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
New York Times Review
Spinning Silver : A Novel
New York Times
September 16, 2018
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company
THE TRIALS OF NINA MCCALL: Sex, Surveillance, and mcCalt the Decades-Long Government Plant to Imprison a "Promiscuous" Women, by Scott W. Stern. (Beacon, ? $28.95.) Stern's meticulous history - the first booklength account of an American government "social hygiene" campaign under which thousands of women were forcibly examined, quarantined and incarcerated - is a consistently surprising page-turner. THE BOUNCER, by David Gordon. (Mysterious Press, $26.) A goofy caper novel in the grand tradition of Donald E. Westlake, set among the international crime families of New York. DOPESICK: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company That Addicted America, by Beth Macy. (Little, Brown, $28.) Macy's harrowing account of the opioid epidemic in which hundreds of thousands have already died masterfully interlaces stories of communities in crisis with dark histories of corporate greed and regulatory indifference. AMITY AND PROSPERITY: One Family and the Fracturing of America, by Eliza Griswold. (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $27.) This impassioned account of fracking's toll on a small town in Pennsylvania by Griswold, a poet and journalist, lays bare in novelistic detail the human and environmental costs of a practice abetted by greed and government negligence. SPINNING SILVER, by Naomi Növik. (Del Rey, $28.) In her stunning new novel, rich in both ideas and people, Növik gives classic fairy tales - particularly "Rumpelstiltskin" - a fresh, wholly original twist, with the vastness of Tolkien and the empathy and joy in daily life of Le Guin. FLORIDA, by Lauren Groff. (Riverhead, $27.) In the 11 dramatic tales that make up her second story collection, Groff's version of Florida comes with menace, but no less wonder. The author is a careful, sharp recorder of the natural world, and this is restorative fiction for these urgent times. THE PRISON LETTERS OF NELSON MANDELA, edited by Sahm Venter. (Liveright, $35.) This volume of 255 letters, both heartbreaking and inspiring, by the former South African president and civil rights activist, shows his evolution over the course of his long prison sentence into a leader of rare moral courage. CLOCK DANCE, by Anne Tyler. (Knopf, $26.95.) In her latest Baltimore-centric novel, Tyler plunges a staid Arizona retiree into the off-kilter lives of a single mother, her daughter and their rambunctious neighbors. THE HIDDEN STAR, by K. Sello Duiker. (Cassava Republic, $17.95; ages 10 and up.) This captivating posthumous novel is set in a dusty town outside Soweto, South Africa, where magic and danger lurk as a girl discovers a wish-granting stone. The full reviews of these and other recent books are on the web: nytimes.com/books
Kirkus Review
Spinning Silver : A Novel
Kirkus Reviews
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
From the author of Uprooted (2015), the splendid Temeraire Napoleonic Wars-and-dragons series, etc., this reworked fairy tale's opening sentence might well have read Once upon a time in Old Lithuania....Expanding a recent short story based on "Rumpelstiltskin," Novik weaves in other elements of Eastern European folklore along with some fine original flourishes. Miryem, the granddaughter of affluent Jewish moneylenders, takes over her incompetent father's failing business affairs. Channeling anger and frustration into business acumen, she collects the debts that are owed, accepting goods or services as well as coin. In this and other ways, Miryem turns copper and silver into gold. Unfortunately, gold attracts the attention of the Staryk, coldhearted fairies who occasionally intrude into the human world, bringing with them forgetfulness and a breath of winter. One such gives Miryem fairy silver, ordering her to change it into gold. Fairy silver, Miryem finds, is so beautiful that it fetches huge sums in gold, especially when made into jewelry magnificent enough to intrigue the Duke. Miryem slowly grasps that she's made a bargain with the Staryk: He will make her his queen if she succeeds in spinning a vast pile of silver into goldand freeze her solid if she fails. She has no wish to marry him but also notices that the Staryk do not particularly value gold in itselfso why do they want such large quantities of it? In spare prose of great clarity Novik weaves in and out of multiple first-person narratives in sometimes-illuminating, sometimes-disconcerting or confusing ways, exploring human and alien social structures and ethnic prejudices, fathers and daughters, damaged relationships and hidden agendas, wringing unexpected consequences from seemingly simple choices.A medieval fable of obscure moral import blossoms into a thoughtful, emotionally complex, absorbing drama that stands confidently on its own merits. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.