Miryem slowly grasps that she’s made a bargain with the Staryk: He will make her his queen if she succeeds in spinning a vast pile of silver into gold-and freeze her solid if she fails. Fairy silver, Miryem finds, is so beautiful that it fetches huge sums in gold, especially when made into jewelry magnificent enough to intrigue the Duke. One such gives Miryem fairy silver, ordering her to change it into gold. Unfortunately, gold attracts the attention of the Staryk, coldhearted fairies who occasionally intrude into the human world, bringing with them forgetfulness and a breath of winter. In this and other ways, Miryem turns copper and silver into gold. Channeling anger and frustration into business acumen, she collects the debts that are owed, accepting goods or services as well as coin. Miryem, the granddaughter of affluent Jewish moneylenders, takes over her incompetent father’s failing business affairs. From the author of Uprooted (2015), the splendid Temeraire Napoleonic Wars–and-dragons series, etc., this reworked fairy tale’s opening sentence might well have read Once upon a time in Old Lithuania.Įxpanding a recent short story based on “Rumpelstiltskin,” Novik weaves in other elements of Eastern European folklore along with some fine original flourishes.
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