I just finished Cat Valente’s _Deathless_. One of the best books I’ve ever read. If you’re a Neil Gaiman fan, you owe it to yourself to read this as soon as possible. Valente isn’t Gaiman — she’s something rare and beautiful and unique — but his work is the closest point of reference I can offer. They’re both working in the realm of fairy tale as literature, fairy tale as high art. In this case it’s a Russian folk tale (warning! Spoilers on the Wikipedia article about the folk tale), woven together with the gritty history of the Siege of Leningrad. _Deathless_ is powerful and mythic and moving, and I give it my very highest recommendation. -Egg