THe SISTerS OF THe WINTer WOOD

released 27 sepTeMber 464 pages | Hardback/ebook Author rena rossner Publisher Orbit

It’s not uncommon, especially when you’re young, to feel like your annoying little sibling must belong to another species. It’s less common, however, to find out that they genuinely do.

Liba and Laya are sisters, and opposites: Liba is dark-haired, solidly built and bookish; Laya is graceful, fair and intuitive. One day, their parents go to visit distant family, leaving the sisters in a cottage in the woods. (You may think this ill-advised, but that’s fairy tales for you.) No sooner have mum and dad gone – with a parting revelation that the family is more uncanny than realised – than trouble brews in the nearby town. A group of strangers are selling weird fruit, hostile rumours are flying about the town’s Jews, and Liba is exchanging glances across a room with a boy.

The formal distinction between the sisters (Liba narrates in prose, Laya in free verse) isn’t wholly successful, but lends an almost operatic dimension to dramatic moments, of which there are plenty. Inspired by historical events in the Ukraine/Moldova borderland of the author’s ancestors, this debut novel blends weighty themes – intercultural tensions, family feuds – with Russian and Jewish shapeshifting folklore. The result is a story that’s both charming and chilling.