The Wood At Midwinter

By (author) Clarke Susanna
Description:

From the internationally bestselling and prize-winning author of Piranesi and Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, an enchanting and haunting Christmas short story

**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**

‘A church is a sort of wood. A wood is a sort of church. They’re the same thing really.’

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 quote:
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
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What a world Susanna Clarke conjures into being
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A miraculous and luminous feat of storytelling
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Like Hilary Mantel, Clarke made the very notion of genre seem quaint
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One of the greatest and most interesting writers of fantasy in the past hundred years or more
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A treasure, washed up upon a forgotten shore, waiting to be discovered
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Purely joyful reading
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Utterly compelling – bewildering, intense, moving, shocking, combining a haunting fantasy with sharp insight
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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.
Biographical note:
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.
Promotional headline:
From the internationally bestselling and prize-winning author of Piranesi and Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, an enchanting and haunting Christmas short story
Feature:
This giftable, exquisitely illustrated hardback short story, set in a corner of the Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell universe, will be a treasure to Susanna Clarke fans old and new
Feature:
Bloomsbury have put out over 1.6 million copies of Susanna Clarke''s work across all markets. Her books are international bestsellers, have been translated into over 30 languages and adapted for major BBC series. Her latest novel Piranesi was awarded the Women''s Prize for Fiction 2021
Feature:
Publishing in the 20th anniversary of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, this beautiful gift edition will delight fans of Madeline Miller''s Galatea, Philip Pullma