A glorious retelling of the Russian folktale Marya Morevna and Koschei the Deathless, set in a mysterious version of St. Petersburg during the first half of the 20th century.
'Romantic and blood-streaked, and infused with magic so real you can feel it on your fingertips - Deathless is beautiful.' Cory Doctorow
'A clever and often beautifully written fusion of a Russian fairy tale and Russian history. Valente's invention and ambition are extraordinary.' The Times
A handsome young man arrives in St Petersburg at the house of Marya Morevna. He is Koschei, the Tsar of Life, and he is Marya's fate. For years she follows him in love and in war, and bears the scars. But eventually Marya returns to her birthplace - only to discover a starveling city, haunted by death. Deathless is a fierce story of life and death, love and power, old memories, deep myth and dark magic, set against the history of Russia in the twentieth century. It is, quite simply, unforgettable.
'Swept away to the icy wastes of the Russian steppes and the frigid streets of Stalinist St Petersburg by Catherynne M. Valente's Deathless, I felt I'd happened upon a forgotten classic.' Big Issue
'Stories, unlike people, can live again... They must be revived by the miraculous touch of a very rare class of being, a kind of multi-classed genius/scholar/saint, who can restore them to life. Catherynne Valente is such a being.' Lev Grossman
'A remarkable piece of speculative fiction - a collision of myth, magic, folklore and actual history (almost incidentally describing the story of Russia across the twentieth century) . . . Bold, subversive, genre-defying.' BookOxygen
[ISBN barcode: 9781472108685]
£7.99
www.constablerobinson.com
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Koschei the Deathless is by far by the most interesting and charismatic monster I have ever met, and I can't help but feel that I was changed more by that meeting than by most of my meetings with fellow humans. In
Deathless, Catherynne M. Valente brings traditional Russian folklore together with a frighteningly real portrayal of Russia in 1920-1940. The story that is created is full of monsters, creatures and communist radicals, and it is also achingly poignant.
