NAMED A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOKĀ OF THE YEAR &Ā ONE OF THE BEST FANTASY NOVELS OF THE YEARĀ
āAstonishing and pristine, the kind of debut I love to be devastated by, already so assured and sophisticated that itās difficult to imagine where the author can go from here. . . . Itās simply a delight from start to finish.āĀ ā AMAL EL-MOHTAR, New York Times Book ReviewĀ
āFollow where this novel leads and you will be lost in a bewitching spell, a book of magic about books of magic . . . extraordinary.ā ā MARLON JAMES
In this spellbinding debut novel, two estranged half-sisters tasked with guarding their familyās library of magical booksĀ must work together to unravel a deadly secret at the heart of their collectionāa tale of familial loyalty and betrayal, and the pursuit of magic and power.
For generations, the Kalotay family has guarded a collection of ancient and rare books. Books that let a person walk through walls or manipulate the elementsābooks of magic that half-sisters Joanna and Esther have been raised to revere and protect.
All magic comes with a price, though, and for years the sisters have been separated. Esther has fled to a remote base in Antarctica to escape the fate that killed her own mother, and Joannaās isolated herself in their family home in Vermont, devoting her life to the study of these cherished volumes. But after their father dies suddenly while reading a book Joanna has never seen before, the sisters must reunite to preserve their family legacy. In the process, theyāll uncover a world of magic far bigger and more dangerous than they ever imagined, and all the secrets their parents kept hidden; secrets that span centuries, continents, and even other libraries . . .
In the great tradition ofĀ Ninth House, The Magicians,Ā andĀ Practical Magic,Ā this is a suspenseful and richly atmospheric novel that draws readers into a vast world filled with mystery and magic, romance, and intrigueāand marks the debut of an extraordinary new voice in speculative fiction.
""Ink Blood Sister ScribeĀ is so many things at once: an adventure, a puzzle, a twisty thriller, and a tender romance. . . . I adored it.ā ā ALIX E. HARROW
""If, like me, youāre a fan of Holly Black and Leigh Bardugo, pick up this book at once.āĀ āĀ KELLY LINKĀ
Emma Tƶrzs is a writer, teacher, and occasional translator based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Her fiction has been honored with an NEA fellowship in prose, a World Fantasy Award for Short Fiction, and an O. Henry Prize. Her stories have been published in journals such as Ploughshares, Uncanny Magazine, Strange Horizons, and American Short Fiction. She received her MFA from the University of Montana, Missoula, and is an enthusiastic member of the Clarion West class of 2017.