The River Has Roots bookcover

The River Has Roots

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Description

AN INDIE NEXT AND LIBRARYREADS PICK!

The River Has Roots
is the hugely anticipated solo debut of the New York Times bestselling and Hugo Award winning author Amal El-Mohtar. Follow the river Liss to the small town of Thistleford, on the edge of Faerie, and meet two sisters who cannot be separated, even in death.


The hardcover edition features beautiful interior illustrations and a foil case stamp.

"Half delicious murder ballad, half beguiling love story." —Holly Black • "An absolute must-read." —T. Kingfisher • "Every sentence sings!" —Sarah Beth Durst • "Utterly enchanting." —Fonda Lee • "A story that outlasts itself." —Alix E. Harrow • "Truly exquisite." —Zoraida Córdova • "A beautiful, musical, and loving story." —Emma Törzs

“Oh what is stronger than a death? Two sisters singing with one breath.”

In the small town of Thistleford, on the edge of Faerie, dwells the mysterious Hawthorn family.

There, they tend and harvest the enchanted willows and honour an ancient compact to sing to them in thanks for their magic. None more devotedly than the family’s latest daughters, Esther and Ysabel, who cherish each other as much as they cherish the ancient trees.

But when Esther rejects a forceful suitor in favor of a lover from the land of Faerie, not only the sisters’ bond but also their lives will be at risk…

Product Details

PublisherTordotcom
Publish DateMarch 04, 2025
Pages144
LanguageEnglish
TypeBook iconHardback
EAN/UPC9781250341082
Dimensions218.4 X 142.2 X 16.5 mm | 0.5 pounds
BISAC Categories: Fantasy, Fantasy

About the Author

Amal El-Mohtar is a Hugo Award-winning author of science fiction, fantasy, poetry and criticism, and the co-author of the New York Times bestseller This is How You Lose the Time War, written with Max Gladstone, which has been translated into over ten languages. Her reviews and articles have appeared in the New York Times and on NPR Books. She lives in Ottawa, Canada.

Reviews

Praise for The River Has Roots

"This book is lyrical, elegant, and above all, kind. Amal El-Mohtar is quite simply one of the best writers on the scene in ages." —T. Kingfisher, New York Times bestselling author of A Sorceress Comes To Call

"Half delicious murder ballad, half beguiling love story, Amal El-Mohtar transports us to Faerieland so seamlessly it seems as though she just stepped out of it." —Holly Black, #1 New York Times bestselling author

"A book you’ll want to revisit like a favorite song, especially once you know the words to sing along." —Kirkus, starred review

"... a marvelous story that pulls on old Grimm fairy tales of violence and truth telling, of what it means to be sisters in a story of fae and folklore, and of the kind of true love that exists between sisters." —Booklist, starred review

"A murder ballad in book form that will linger long after the final page is turned." —Library Journal, starred review

"El-Mohtar’s ethereal prose paints a clear picture of the unbreakable bond between her worthy heroines." —Publishers Weekly

“When it comes to storytelling, Amal El-Mohtar is like one of the grammarians of Thistleford, a magician capable of deftly transforming the familiar into the unfamiliar and the numinous into the humane.” —Fonda Lee, author of the Green Bone Saga

"Gorgeous and glorious! Every sentence sings!" —Sarah Beth Durst, New York Times bestselling author of The Spellshop

"The River Has Roots is the perfect fable: both bright and brutal, very old and brand new. It's a story that outlasts itself, lingering like a song; I adored it.” —Alix E. Harrow, New York Times bestselling author of Starling House

"The River Has Roots is truly exquisite." —Zoraida Córdova, USA Today bestselling author of The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina

"The River Has Roots has all the dark comforts of an old tale and all the light vigors of a new classic, and will inspire you to raise your voice in song with those you love." —Emma Törzs, author of Ink Blood Sister Scribe

"The River Has Roots is about love, and language, and how language is always a kind of sorcery, and El-Mohtar’s writing is a demonstration, too, of this sorcery in action." —Kelly Link, author of The Book of Love

“A lyrical embodiment of language and song, The River Has Roots is dreamy and lush, lyrical and vivid. Amal El-Mohtar is a sorceress.” —Ananda Lima, author of Craft: Stories I Wrote for the Devil

“Amal El-Mohtar knows how to reel us in with beautiful prose and some of the most dazzling writing that we've seen.” —Cosmo

"El-Mohtar delivers a meditation on love—between sisters and between lovers—on language, magic, loyalty, and transformation." —Locus

"El-Mohtar is one of our finest crafters of sentences." —Esquire

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