THE COURT OF MIRACLES

RELEASED 4 JUNE 400 pages | Hardback/ebook/ audiobook

Author Kester Grant

Publisher Harper Voyager

Part Les Misérables, part The Jungle Book, The Court Of Miracles is a grotesquely beautiful adventure. Heroine Nina Thenardier joins the Thieves’ Guild as a child – the last wish of her sister, who’s been sold into prostitution under the Tiger, head of the Guild Of Flesh.

If you know Kipling’s work, you’ll recognise the vicious, voracious Shere Khan in the Tiger; a hint of Kaa in Lady Corday, head of the Assassins’ Guild; Grey Brother in beggar Loup. Other characters – Mr Thenardier, Grantaire, Jean Valjean – have their roots in Victor Hugo’s book. Yet this is a wonderful story in its own right, and Grant’s characters are fully realised, not mere borrowings, and don’t stick rigidly to the roles their originators gave them. There’s a tawdry glamour to the nine guilds governed by the Court of Miracles, the stolen jewels and borrowed finery never quite concealing the dirt, disease, hunger and rage of the poor.

As Nina’s quest – first to free her sister, then to have her revenge on the Tiger – takes her from the catacombs to the palace, from the company of beggars to revolutionaries to the Dauphin himself, the balance between fairy tale and realism is beautifully maintained. Beguiling, in an Angela Carter-like way.

Miriam McDonald