The Bear and the Nightingale

Winternight, Book 1

By: Katherine Arden

Narrated by: Kathleen Gati

Length: 11 hrs and 48 mins

Publisher's summary

Random House presents the unabridged downloadable audiobook edition of The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden, read by Kathleen Gati.

A young woman's family is threatened by forces both real and fantastical in this debut novel inspired by Russian fairy tales.

In a village at the edge of the wilderness of Northern Russia, where the winds blow cold and the snow falls many months of the year, a stranger with piercing blue eyes presents a new father with a gift - a precious jewel on a delicate chain, intended for his young daughter. Uncertain of its meaning, the father hides the gift away, and his daughter, Vasya, grows up a wild, willful girl, to the chagrin of her family. But when mysterious forces threaten the happiness of their village, Vasya discovers that, armed only with the necklace, she may be the only one who can keep the darkness at bay.

Atmospheric and enchanting, with an engrossing adventure at its core, The Bear and the Nightingale is perfect for fans of Naomi Novik's Uprooted, Erin Morgenstern's The Night Circus and Neil Gaiman.

©2017 Katherine Arden (P)2017 Random House AudioBooks

Starke Frau

Inhalt:
Vasya ist das jüngste Kind Marinas und Pjotrs, die am Rande des Waldes leben. Marina weiß, dass ihre Tochter sie das Leben kosten wird, ihr ist es aber sehr wichtig, diese Tochter gesund auf die Welt zu bringen.

Vasya und ihre Brüder wachsen auf, betreut von Dunja, der alten Kinderfrau der Mutter.

Dunja erzählt den Kindern alle möglichen Märchen, und Vasya lernt, dass mehr an diesen Märchen dran ist, als gemeinhin geglaubt wird.

Vasya wächst ziemlich wild auf, aber als ihr Vater erneut heiratet, brechen schwere Zeiten für sie an. Ihre Stiefmutter ist nur wenig älter als Vasya, und wäre lieber in ein Kloster gegangen, als zu heiraten, wird aber ein Opfer der Politik des Machthabenden in Moskau.

Anna ist sehr gläubig und fanatisch. Als ein gleichermaßen fanatischer Priester ins Dorf geschickt wird um die Leute zum Christentum zu bekehren, gerät nicht nur Vasya in Gefahr.


Meine Meinung:
Das Buch wurde empfohlen für Fans von unter anderem Naomi Novik's Uprooted -- ein Buch, an dem sich die Geister scheiden, das ich aber geliebt habe.


Ich wurde nicht enttäuscht. Im Buch geht es nicht nur um den ewigen Krieg des neuen (Gott)Glaubens gegen die alten Naturgötter und Fabelwesen, sondern es geht auch um das Selbstbestimmungsrecht der Frauen, und die typische Reaktion der Männer, die Vasya als Hexe abstempeln und verdammen, und mit Gewalt versuchen, sie unter Kontrolle zu bekommen.


Vasya lässt sich aber nicht unterkriegen. Glücklicherweise hat sie die Unterstützung ihres jüngsten Bruders, und ihrer Halbschwester.


Der ewige Kampf zwischen Gut und Böse, zwischen Glaube und Aberglaube, zwischen Liebe und Hass, zwischen Gier und Großzügigkeit, zwischen Mann und Frau ist hier wunderbar beschrieben.

Außerdem geht es um den Überlebenskampf in den berühmt-brüchtigten russischen Wintern, und natürlich treffen wir auf eine Form von 'Väterchen Frost'. Überhaupt trifft man auf so ziemlich alle Märchen- und Sagengestalten der slawischen Kultur -- manche alt bekannt, andere (mir) neu.


Die Geschichte selbst ist sehr langsam aufgebaut, so dass man jeden Schritt genau verfolgt. Möglicherweise hätte man hier und da etwas raffen können, aber ich fand die fast 12 Stunden Hörbuch sehr unterhaltsam.

Die Sprecherin, Kathleen Gati, erzählt das Ganze mit einem russischen Akzent. Anfangs dachte ich, es wäre eventuell ihr Akzent, aber dem ist nicht so.

Warum sie sich dieses Akzents befleißigt hat, kann ich nur vermuten: möglicherweise dachte sie, es klinge authentischer.


Mich hat es anfangs sehr irritiert, und es machte es schwerer, alles zu verstehen, da viele Wörter merkwürdig ausgesprochen wurden.
Insgesamt ist es aber ein schönes Buch.

A fantastical tale

This, I think, is my first full review despite having listened to and loved a number of stories here in audible. I am doing this mostly because that publisher's summary above is not quite right and it annoyed me a bit.

Vasya was already a wild, willful young girl when the blue-eyed stranger gave her father the necklace. Pyotr did not hide it from her - he gave it to Dunya, their housekeeper and the children's carer, for her to give to Vasya. Both Dunya and Pyotr knew that it was no ordinary trinket, and that the stranger was no ordinary man, and were afraid. It was Dunya who kept the necklace from Vasya, sorrowfully giving it to her when the time was right.

It's not a big deal and does not affect the main story at all, but I just wanted to correct that for some reason.

That being said and out of the way, The Bear and the Nightingale is a wonderful tale. It feels (to me at least) like a newly-discovered Russian folk tale, with bits of various old Russian and Slavic mythologies masterfully weaved through. It starts off slow however, and even a little boring. It took me more than three attempts before I managed to get past the first couple of chapters.

It starts from the very beginning - before Vasya was born - as typical fairy stories do. This gave me an opportunity to get know the characters. I grew to like them and understood why they made their decisions later on in the story. Vasya is a strong female lead, and I rooted for her until the very end. I especially loved the interactions with the traditional fairy-tale creatures.

This story touches on the uneasy mix of the old gods and new - of tradition and religion, paganism and Christianity. It reminded me that some of today's Christian religions' beliefs actually have pagan roots. Also, with Vasya being such a headstrong female character, this story has bits of gender role challenges inevitably thrown in.

The narration is soft, slow and melodic. This is the main reason it took me a long time to finish this audiobook. I felt like she was reading to get me to sleep. I learned to tolerate this and even liked her Russian accents. But towards the end, when things are getting exciting, her pace remained slow and her voice lulling. I would have liked to hear a bit of passion.

Overall, I felt like the story is genuine, despite all the fantastical elements in it. Like it could really have happened, once upon a time. If you like Naomi Novik and Neil Gaiman, you might like this one too.

Edit:
The story could have ended here and I would have been happy. But it does not, so off I go to book 2.

The Bear and the Nightingale

The Narrator truly brought this story to life. It was a very enjoyable book to listen to.

Took a bit of getting into but then I was hooked!

I struggled to get started though the narration was enjoyable. After the first part, the character's developed and I was hooked. The ending I felt happened so quickly after the carefully crafted build. I could have happily enjoyed another few chapters.

enthralling

Such an enjoyable book. the narrator takes you to another world where anything seems possible. magical

Second time even better.

Griping storyline and excellent narator. Did it twice and found second time worth every minute spent.

I don't know.

The story is excellent but the whole time I felt like I was listening to a guided meditation... People were dying, winter was coming and it sounded like everyone was on Xanax. I kept listening because of the writing itself, so maybe I would recommend you read this one.