Deathless
Catherynne M. Valente
230 pages
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.
This book is a fascinating reworking of a Russian epic that explores deep themes of life and death, good and bad, and love and hate.
Catherynne M. Valente's *Deathless* features beautiful prose and a whimsical, surreal, and magical quality that evokes the charm of Ghibli films.
It's a sympathetic retelling of a classic villain, intertwined with 20th-century Russian history, making it an excellent and enlightening read.