The Bear and the Nightingale

Katherine Arden's historical fantasy novel The Bear and the Nightingale was published by Del Rey Books in 2017. It is her debut novel and the first book of the Winternight trilogy. The series is set in medieval Russia and draws on Russian folklore, and it reached the finalists' lists for two awards: Best First Novel at the Locus Awards and Best Series at the Hugo Awards.

Vasya grows up in a village at the edge of the northern forests, where the household spirits are given bread and the winter lasts most of the year. Her mother died giving birth to her, her father is often away, and the wife he brings home from Moscow forbids the family from honouring the spirits that keep the house. Vasya can see those spirits, which is a useful talent in a year when the crops fail and the winter keeps getting worse.

At the centre of the story is a young girl who can talk to mythological creatures, in an era when Orthodox Christianity is working to stamp out belief in such beings. An old enemy of the village is looking for a door back in, and the old beliefs and the new religion are pulling the household in different directions. Vasya is caught between an offer of marriage, a convent and the wild places she is drawn to.

The trilogy continues in The Girl in the Tower and The Winter of the Witch, and the first volume establishes Vasya, her family and the spirits of the house and the forest. It is a historical fantasy with a strong sense of season and place, and it is the first of three books about the same girl.