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Searching... Hardwood Creek Library (Forest Lake) | FICTION ROS | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
Experience an evocative combination of fantasy, history, and Jewish folklore in this lush and lyrical fairytale-inspired novel from the author of The Sisters of the Winter Wood .
Deep in the Hungarian woods, the sacred magic of King Solomon lives on in his descendants. Gathering under the midnight stars, they perform small miracles and none are more gifted than the great Rabbi Isaac and his three daughters.
Hannah, bookish and calm, can coax plants to grow even when the weather is bitterly cold. Sarah, defiant and strong, can control the impulsive nature of fire. And Levana, the fey one, can read the path of the stars to decipher their secrets.
But darkness is creeping across Europe, threatening the lives of every Jewish person in every village. Each sister will have to make an impossible choice in an effort to survive--and change the fate of their family forever.
Praise for The Light of the Midnight Stars :
"Storytelling as spellcasting. Rossner has conjured something vivid and wild and true."--Kiran Millwood Hargrave, author of The Mercies
"Rossner creates a lush, immersive world through which the sprawling plot meanders, punctuated by moments of intense grief. The result is as lovely as it is heartbreaking." -- Publishers Weekly
"Rossner's tale is as lyrical as the slow growth of roots, the quick dance of fire, and the stately procession of the stars. Blending folktale with history, hope with tragedy, its touch will linger on your heart long after you put it down."--Marie Brennan
For more from Rena Rossner, check out The Sisters of the Winter Wood .
Author Notes
Rena Rossner hails from Miami Beach, Florida. She is a graduate of the Johns Hopkins University Writing Seminars Program and holds an MA in history from McGill University in Montreal, Canada. She currently lives in Israel with her husband, five children, and a pug, where she works as a literary agent. Her grandparents and great-grandparents are from Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, Hungary, and Romania. Their stories inspire her work.
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Rossner's folklore-steeped sophomore outing (after The Sisters of the Winter Wood) offers a complex meditation on tragedy and tradition. Reb Isaac and his family live in the Jewish quarter of Trnava where they uphold the traditions of the Solomonars, a sect capable of powerful magic. Their story unfolds through the eyes of Isaac's three gifted daughters: romantic Hannah, the oldest, has a special connection to the earth; defiant Sarah can conjure fire; and Levana, the youngest and least developed, obsesses over the futures she reads in the stars. As a black mist descends on the town, infecting crops and creeping into people's lungs, rumors spread that the Solomonars are responsible. When a goyish royal converts to Judaism for love of Hannah, the anti-Semitism only worsens--eventually forcing the family to flee their burning village through the woods. When they emerge in Wallachia, they take on new names and set aside their old ways. But faith and magic linger in the sisters' hearts--and when they cross paths with the royal family of their new land, history threatens to repeat itself. With deceptively simple prose, Rossner creates a lush, immersive world through which the sprawling plot meanders, punctuated by moments of intense grief. The result is as lovely as it is heartbreaking. Agent: Brent Taylor, TriadaUS Literary. (Apr.)
Booklist Review
Rossner (The Sisters of the Winter Wood, 2018) has crafted a masterful tale blending Jewish mysticism, fairy tales, and history in this story about three girls who wield the sacred magic of King Solomon's descendants. Each of the sisters presents her perspective as they grow from squabbling siblings to a unified front in the face of adversity. Hannah, the oldest, has supernatural abilities with healing and plants and assists their father as his scribe. Sarah, brooding and angry, has an untameable flame within her that accidentally burns their garden, though she eventually learns to control it--somewhat--from one of her father's apprentices. Levana daydreams about the stars, connecting with them intimately while studying with her father at the synagogue. When tragedy strikes their family and they are forced to flee, they adopt new names and move past their infighting to find the best path forward for their struggling family. This spectacular coming-of-age story shows the evolution that each of the sisters moves through to find their ending.
Library Journal Review
Rossner's tale combines Hungarian folklore with the Jewish mysticism of the Kabbalah to tell a story of love and death. Dragon-riding rabbis and their fire-breathing daughters attempt to change the course of history, only to become victims of it, over and over again. The story begins in a tiny village deep in a Hungarian forest, where the daughters of the local rabbi, a magical descendant of King Solomon, try to keep the darkest of magic away from their village home. They are forced to flee when their attempts fail and they are blamed for a resulting tragedy. As refugees, they attempt to hide themselves, their religion, and their magic far, far away, only for evil to again pursue them in their new home. Each of these magical daughters of earth, fire, and the stars falls in love, but in the end their tragic fate is to become legend. VERDICT Highly recommended for lovers of Naomi Novik's Spinning Silver and her "Scholomance" series, as well as readers who enjoy their fantasy steeped in myths from infrequently represented people and places.--Kristi Chadwick, Massachusetts Lib. Syst., Northampton
