Naomi Novik spins words into magic and magic into love.
Three years ago when I read Novik’s Uprooted, I immediately connected with her characters, her magic, her wordplay, and her slow build up to unlikely love. That reading experience quite literally uprooted my long-time desire to write my own stories.
I just finished Novik’s new and even more complex fairy tale, Spinning Silver, and it has stoked the fire of my story lust yet higher. It is beautiful in word and bursting with heart.
From the outset the characters, of which there are many, are mired in brutal cold, brutal poverty, or brutal relationships—in some cases all three. Although there are a whopping six point-of-view characters, they each have distinct voices and are vital to the wholeness of the tale. What the three main characters have in common is an excess of cleverness and a sense that their value is greater than their current circumstances would suggest.
Miryem is the only daughter of a spectacularly unsuccessful moneylender. She fears that the effects of her family’s poverty and the overly long and bitter winter will end her mother’s life, so she takes over the family business…to much better results. But even as she exerts her strength of will to raise her family’s fortunes, she also sparks the notice of the frightening fay king of winter and becomes entangled in his icy web.
Wanda is the oldest child of an abusive and alcoholic father who, because he has nothing of value with which to pay his debts to Miryem, agrees to send Wanda to work off his payments. A hard worker and a fast learner, Wanda increases in worth and loyalty to Miryem’s family until she and her brothers become fugitives and must take flight into the fay king’s icy forest.
Irina is the forgotten daughter of an ambitious duke, who maneuvers to marry her to the tsar for his own gains in influence and power. She finds a way to enter the icy realm of the winter king to escape her new husband’s dark side.
Of course, these three heroines’ stories intertwine to create a plot rich with tension, sacrifice, and cunning power moves. The stakes are high, and so are the emotions.
I read this book aloud so my husband and I could share the story. Each reading session left us anticipating the next with pleasure. The plot pulsed with tension and moments of deep character insight. In fact, several times we had to pause to clear the tears from our eyes.
The themes of sacrifice, family, and love—of self and others, bind this beautiful fairy tale together all the way through to its surprise ending.
