The bitter Russian wind swirls with snowflakes and magic as one fierce girl takes on tradition in Arden’s debut novel, The Bear and the Nightingale.

Vasya Petrovna has grown up with fairytales about the spirits and demons living in the rural forests she calls home. The tales are told to distract the family from their hunger and the long, harsh winters, but Vasya knows that there’s more to the stories than superstition. It falls to this one, strange young girl to work with the creatures who guard her family home.

In a world where a woman’s choices are limited to marrying a man chosen by her father, or living a life of religious piety in a convent, Vasya’s future is uncertain. The household indulges her wild,  temperament, and she spends her childhood days happily exploring the woods, swimming and learning to ride the horses. Meanwhile, her pretty sisters are in line to become princesses, escaping the drudgery of country life for the palace courts of Moscow.

Two new arrivals in the remote town shatter Vasya’s peace. A young priest, determined to stamp out the local’s superstitions and enforce Christian values, and a new, haunted, wife for Vasya’s father. A cloud of danger hangs over the forest, and there’s only so long the little girl can be protected from her fate.

The Bear and the Nightingale is a dark fairytale, combining mystical folklore with family drama in a fantastic, frozen setting.

Vasya takes on not only the future laid out for her by tradition, but also the evil spirits who hold a claim over her soul. She must ignore everything she has been told about a young woman’s role in the world, and draw on all her strength and magic to save herself and her family from lurking evil.