Wood At Midwinter, The

Description: **The Times instant Top Ten bestseller** **Named a book to look out for in 2024 by the Sunday Times, Guardian and BBC** **A small hardback edition featuring an afterword by the author** From the internationally bestselling and prize-winning author of Piranesi and Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, an enchanting and haunting Christmas short story Nineteen-year-old Merowdis Scott is an unusual girl. She can talk to animals and trees - and she is only ever happy when she is walking in the woods. One snowy afternoon, out with her dogs and Apple the pig, Merowdis encounters a blackbird and a fox. As darkness falls, a strange figure enters in their midst - and the path of her life is changed forever. 'Like Hilary Mantel, Clarke has made the very notion of genre seem quaint' Guardian 'A miraculous and luminous feat of storytelling' Madeline Miller **With exquisite illustrations by Victoria Sawdon** Review: This short story from the Women's Prize winner (Piranesi) revolves around 19-year-old Merowdis, who can talk to trees and animals, and whose life changes when she steps into the woods one day * i paper, The best new books out in October * Spellbinding -- Dua Lipa Victoria Sawdon provides winsome black and white illustrations to this elegant story, which has the quiet hush of snowy weather but comes with a bite of frosty other- worldliness that is disquietingly shivery * Daily Mail * A beautifully crafted and haunting tale that has the same enchanting, immersive and transportive storytelling as Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. In this novella, Clarke explores themes of magic, nature, and the passage of time, creating a rich atmosphere that is utterly beguiling ... With the same Piranesi whimsy and mystery, this is perfect for a cold winter's night * Glamour * As beloved fantasy writer Clarke's atmospheric and gently funny fable about the holiness of nature, so gracefully illustrated by Victoria Sawdon, unfurls, Merowdis experiences a transformative encounter. * Booklist * A short fairytale-esque tale that is both poignant and enchanting * Fantasy-Hive * Clarke continues to show her impressive capability to craft a setting in a few sentences ... Light in plot, heavy in theme, and sprinkled with magic, The Wood at Midwinter offers a perfect way to ready yourself for the incoming autumn season. Be prepared to cosy up and envelop yourself in the snowy woodland alongside Merowdis and her animal friends * nb Magazine * Praise for Susanna Clarke: 'Clarke creates a world beyond our wildest imagination that also tells us something profound about what it is to be human -- Bernardine Evaristo, Women's Prize Chair of Judges 2021 What a world Susanna Clarke conjures into being -- David Mitchell For fans of Clarke, this is a must-buy ... The perfect mid-Autumn read * Anything Goes * A miraculous and luminous feat of storytelling -- Madeline MIller Like Hilary Mantel, Clarke made the very notion of genre seem quaint * Guardian * One of the greatest and most interesting writers of fantasy in the past hundred years or more * Times Literary Supplement * A treasure, washed up upon a forgotten shore, waiting to be discovered -- Erin Morgenstern Purely joyful reading -- Naomi Alderman Utterly compelling - bewildering, intense, moving, shocking, combining a haunting fantasy with sharp insight -- Rowan Williams Author Biography: Susanna Clarke's previous novel Piranesi won the Women's Prize for Fiction 2021, was shortlisted for the Costa Novel of the Year Award and was a New York Times and Sunday Times bestseller. Her debut novel Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell was first published in more than 34 countries and was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and shortlisted for the Whitbread First Novel Award and the Guardian First Book Award. It won British Book Awards Newcomer of the Year, the Hugo Award and the World Fantasy Award in 2005. The Ladies of Grace Adieu, a collection of short stories, some set in the world of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, was published by Bloomsbury in 2006. She lives in Derbyshire.