Spinning Silver


Spinning Silver is a 2018 fantasy novel written by Naomi Novik. Novik originally published a short story called "Spinning Silver" in The Starlit Wood anthology in 2016 and later expanded it into a novel. Spinning Silver won the American Library Association's Alex Award in 2019, the 2019 Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel, and the 2019 Audie Award for Fantasy. Spinning Silver was a 2019 Hugo Award for Best Novel Nominee, a 2018 finalist for the Nebula Award for Best Novel, and a 2019 Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Fantasy. The novel is loosely based on the tale of Rumpelstiltskin and explores how debt and gratitude shape relationships.

Synopsis

The story of Spinning Silver unfolds in the voices of several characters, but primarily in the voices of three young women who struggle against strong evil forces, in an imaginary medieval eastern European kingdom called Lithvas.
Miryem takes over her father's unsuccessful money-lending business in the peasant village where hers is the only Jewish family. Her success at "turning silver into gold" attracts the attention of the Staryk king, who rules a winter kingdom full of magic. The Staryk are using their power to make the winters in Lithvas longer and longer, blighting the crops and impoverishing the kingdom.
Wanda and her brothers are peasants in Miryem's village, whose drunken father sends Wanda to work for Miryem to pay off his debts. In Miryem's family they find warmth and safety, which they loyally try to return when Miryem is taken away to the Staryk kingdom.
Irina, the daughter of a duke in Lithvas, has a Staryk great-grandmother and three magical items of Staryk silver. A demon of flame, who holds power over the handsome tsar of Lithvas, plans to devour her. Irina, with Miryem's help, offers the demon a bargain: if he will spare her "and all she holds dear," Irina will help him to devour the Staryk king in her stead. Irina and Miryem hope that this will push back the encroaching winters the Staryk are causing.

Reception

The novel was widely praised upon its release, and was a finalist for the 2019 Hugo Award for Best Novel. The New York Times called it "a perfect tale about the songs of ice and fire." Vox called Novik "one of the definitive YA voices of her era."