In a village at the frozen edge of medieval Rus, Vasilisa Petrovna grows up on her nurse's fireside fairy tales — especially the ones about Morozko, the blue-eyed frost demon of winter. Vasya is a wild, fearless girl who can see the household spirits her neighbors only leave offerings for, the small guardians who quietly keep her family and their land safe.
When her father returns from Moscow with a devout new wife, the old ways fall under suspicion. Vasya's stepmother is terrified of the spirits she too can see, and a charismatic young priest arrives determined to turn the villagers from their traditions toward the fear of God alone. As the offerings stop and the protective spirits weaken, a darker, older power stirs in the forest, and the coming winter grows deadly.
Only Vasya still honors the old gods, and only she can see what is closing in. To protect the people she loves she must trust her strange gifts and step into a struggle between the winter-king and something far more sinister. Katherine Arden's debut, first of the Winternight Trilogy, is a lush, atmospheric fairy tale rooted in Russian folklore.
