Winner of the Hugo Award for Best Novel
An Instant
USA Today
& Indie Bestseller
An Oprah Daily Top 25 Fantasy Book of 2022
A Vulture Best Fantasy Novel of 2022
An NPR Best Sci Fi, Fantasy, & Speculative Fiction Book of 2022
A Goodreads Best Fantasy Choice Award Nominee
From Hugo, Nebula, and Locus award-winning author T. Kingfisher comes an original and subversive fantasy adventure.
This isn't the kind of fairy tale where the princess marries a prince.
It's the one where she kills him.
Marra — a shy, convent-raised, third-born daughter — is relieved not to be married off for the sake of her parents’ throne. Her older sister wasn’t so fortunate though, and her royal husband is as abusive as he is powerful. From the safety of the convent, Marra wonders who will come to her sister’s rescue and put a stop to this. But after years of watching their families and kingdoms pretend all is well, Marra realizes if any hero is coming, it will have to be Marra herself.
If Marra can complete three impossible tasks, a witch will grant her the tools she needs. But, as is the way in stories of princes and the impossible, these tasks are only the beginning of Marra’s strange and enchanting journey to save her sister and topple a throne.
“Wholly entertaining."—
Buzzfeed
“A modern classic.”—Seanan McGuire,
New York Times
bestselling author of
Every Heart A Doorway
“Pure delight. T. Kingfisher uses the bones of fairy tale to create something entirely her own.”—Emily Tesh, award-winning author of
Silver in the Wood
Also by T. Kingfisher
Thornhedge
A Sorceress Comes to Call
What Moves the Dead
What Feasts at Night
A House with Good Bones