Palaces of the Crow

£22.00

June, 1941. Four young teens are caught between the Nazis and the Red Army. Neriya, a young Jewish girl who dreams of becoming a biologist, has befriended a local flock of crows in her shtetl. Czeslaw is an underage Polish soldier who has deserted the Red Army. Kezia is a Roma horse trader whose family is on the run from Soviet collectivisation. As the German blitzkrieg crashes across the border, all three are caught up in the onslaught. Along with Innokentiy, an abandoned boy who cannot speak, they are driven into the primeval Lithuanian forest. As the war rages, the threats of the forest emerge – not only the Germans but also Russian deserters, Polish partisans, fascist Lithuanian police, bandits and outcasts twisted by war. Survival will require forming an unbreakable bond with one another – and also with Neriya’s crows, no ordinary corvids, who guard a secret of their own deep in the trees.

'an extraordinary science fiction novel' SFX MAGAZINE
'constantly surprising, moving and thought-provoking' GUARDIAN
'a must-read author' SFF WORLD
'perhaps the only writer today cooking up Le Guin's special sauce of liberation frustration and revolutionary blues' LOCUS

June 1941, Eastern Europe. As the German blitzkrieg tears across a divided continent, four young lives are thrown into chaos: Neriya, a young Jewish girl who dreams of becoming a scientist; Czeslaw, an underage Polish deserter fleeing the Red Army; Kezia, a Roma horse trader whose family is on the run from Soviet collectivisation; and a nameless,, abandoned boy who cannot speak.

Driven deep into the Lithuanian woods, they form an unbreakable bond with one another and with a flock of crows whose uncanny intelligence hints at a secret older and stranger than they could ever have imagined.

Weight 0.597 kg
Dimensions 23.6 × 16.4 × 3.6 cm
Author

Publisher

Imprint

Cover

Hardback

Pages

336

Language

English

Edition

Hardback original

Dewey

813.6 (edition:23)

Readership

General – Trade / Code: K