Katherine Arden has 7 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 4 narrators, with an average listener rating of 4.6★ across 261 ratings. The most-rated is The Bear and the Nightingale.
The Bear and the Nightingale
Summary
Katherine Arden’s best-selling debut novel spins an irresistible spell as it announces the arrival of a singular talent with a gorgeous voice. “A beautiful deep-winter story, full of magic and monsters and the sharp edges of growing up.” (Naomi Novik, best-selling author of Uprooted) Winter lasts most of the year at the edge of the Russian wilderness, and in the long nights, Vasilisa and her siblings love to gather by the fire to listen to their nurse’s fairy tales. Above all, Vasya loves the story of Frost, the blue-eyed winter demon. Wise Russians fear him, for he claims unwary souls, and they honor the spirits that protect their homes from evil. Then Vasya’s widowed father brings home a new wife from Moscow. Fiercely devout, Vasya’s stepmother forbids her family from honoring their household spirits, but Vasya fears what this may bring. And indeed, misfortune begins to stalk the village. But Vasya’s stepmother only grows harsher, determined to remake the village to her liking and to groom her rebellious stepdaughter for marriage or a convent. As the village’s defenses weaken and evil from the forest creeps nearer, Vasilisa must call upon dangerous gifts she has long concealed - to protect her family from a threat sprung to life from her nurse’s most frightening tales. Praise for The Bear and the Nightingale “Arden’s debut novel has the cadence of a beautiful fairy tale but is darker and more lyrical.” (The Washington Post) “Vasya [is] a clever, stalwart girl determined to forge her own path in a time when women had few choices.” (The Christian Science Monitor) “Stunning...will enchant readers from the first page....with an irresistible heroine who wants only to be free of the bonds placed on her gender and claim her own fate.” (Publishers Weekly [starred review]) “Utterly bewitching...a lush narrative...an immersive, earthy story of folk magic, faith, and hubris, peopled with vivid, dynamic characters, particularly clever, brave Vasya, who outsmarts men and demons alike to save her family.” (Booklist [starred review]) “An extraordinary retelling of a very old tale... The Bear and the Nightingale is a wonderfully layered novel of family and the harsh wonders of deep winter magic.” (Robin Hobb)
©2017 Katherine Arden (P)2017 Random House Audio
The Girl in the Tower
Summary
The magical adventure begun in The Bear and the Nightingale continues as brave Vasya, now a young woman, is forced to choose between marriage and life in a convent and instead flees her home - but soon finds herself called upon to help defend the city of Moscow when it comes under siege.
©2017 Katherine Arrden (P)2017 Random House Audio
The Winter of the Witch
Summary
New York Times Best Seller Following their adventures in The Bear and the Nightingale and The Girl in the Tower, Vasya and Morozko return in this stunning conclusion to the best-selling Winternight Trilogy, battling enemies mortal and magical to save both Russias, the seen and the unseen. "A tale both intimate and epic, featuring a heroine whose harrowing and wondrous journey culminates in an emotionally resonant finale." (Publishers Weekly, starred review) NAMED ONE OF PASTE’S BEST FANTASY BOOKS OF THE DECADE Vasilisa Petrovna is an unforgettable heroine determined to forge her own path. Her gifts and her courage have drawn the attention of Morozko, the winter-king, but it is too soon to know if this connection will prove a blessing or a curse. Now Moscow has been struck by disaster. Its people are searching for answers - and for someone to blame. Vasya finds herself alone, beset on all sides. The Grand Prince is in a rage, choosing allies that will lead him on a path to war and ruin. A wicked demon returns, determined to spread chaos. Caught at the center of the conflict is Vasya, who finds the fate of two worlds resting on her shoulders. Her destiny uncertain, Vasya will uncover surprising truths about herself as she desperately tries to save Russia, Morozko, and the magical world she treasures. But she may not be able to save them all. Praise for The Winter of the Witch: “Katherine Arden’s Winternight Trilogy isn’t just good - it’s hug-to-your-chest, straight-to-the-favorites-shelf, reread-immediately good, and each book just gets better. The Winter of the Witch plunges us back to fourteenth-century Moscow, where old gods and new vie for the soul of Russia and fate rests on a witch girl’s slender shoulders. Prepare to have your heart ripped out, loaned back to you full of snow and magic, and ripped out some more.” (Laini Taylor) “Luxuriously detailed yet briskly suspenseful.... a striking literary fantasy informed by Arden’s deep knowledge.” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review)
©2018 Katherine Arden (P)2018 Random House Audio
Small Spaces
Summary
New York Times best-selling adult author of The Bear and the Nightingale makes her middle-grade debut with a creepy, spellbinding ghost story destined to become a classic. After suffering a tragic loss, 11-year-old Ollie only finds solace in books. So when she happens upon a crazed woman at the river threatening to throw a book into the water, Ollie doesn't think - she just acts, stealing the book and running away. As she begins to read the slender volume, Ollie discovers a chilling story about a girl named Beth, the two brothers who both loved her, and a peculiar deal made with "the smiling man", a sinister specter who grants your most tightly held wish, but only for the ultimate price. Ollie is captivated by the tale until her school trip the next day to Smoke Hollow, a local farm with a haunting history all its own. There she stumbles upon the graves of the very people she's been reading about. Could it be the story about the smiling man is true? Ollie doesn't have too long to think about the answer to that. On the way home, the school bus breaks down, sending their teacher back to the farm for help. But the strange bus driver has some advice for the kids left behind in his care: "Best get moving. At nightfall they'll come for the rest of you." Nightfall is, indeed, fast descending when Ollie's previously broken digital wristwatch, a keepsake reminder of better times, begins a startling countdown and delivers a terrifying message: RUN. Only Ollie and two of her classmates heed the bus driver's warning. As the trio head out into the woods - bordered by a field of scarecrows that seem to be watching them - the bus driver has just one final piece of advice for Ollie and her friends: "Avoid large places. Keep to small." And with that, a deliciously creepy and hair-raising adventure begins.
©2018 Katherine Arden (P)2018 Listening Library
L'ours et le rossignol
Summary
Au plus froid de l'hiver, Vassia adore par-dessus tout écouter, avec ses frères et sa sœur, les contes de Dounia, la vieille servante. Et plus particulièrement celui de Gel, ou Morozko, le démon aux yeux bleus, le roi de l'hiver. Mais, pour Vassia, ces histoires sont bien plus que cela. En effet, elle est la seule de la fratrie à voir les esprits protecteurs de la maison, à entendre l'appel insistant des sombres forces nichées au plus profond de la forêt. Ce qui n'est pas du goût de la nouvelle femme de son père, dévote acharnée, bien décidée à éradiquer de son foyer les superstitions ancestrales.
©2019 Éditions Denoël (P)2020 Audible Studios
Dead Voices
Summary
New York Times best-selling author Katherine Arden returns with another creepy, spine-tingling adventure in this follow-up to the critically acclaimed Small Spaces. Having survived sinister scarecrows and the malevolent smiling man in Small Spaces, newly minted best friends Ollie, Coco, and Brian are ready to spend a relaxing winter break skiing together with their parents at Mount Hemlock Resort. But when a snowstorm sets in, causing the power to flicker out and the cold to creep closer and closer, the three are forced to settle for hot chocolate and board games by the fire. Ollie, Coco, and Brian are determined to make the best of being snowed in, but odd things keep happening. Coco is convinced she has seen a ghost, and Ollie is having nightmares about frostbitten girls pleading for help. Then Mr. Voland, a mysterious ghost hunter, arrives in the midst of the storm to investigate the hauntings at Hemlock Lodge. Ollie, Coco, and Brian want to trust him, but Ollie's watch, which once saved them from the smiling man, has a new cautionary message: BEWARE. With Mr. Voland's help, Ollie, Coco, and Brian reach out to the dead voices at Mount Hemlock. Maybe the ghosts need their help - or maybe not all ghosts can or should be trusted. Dead Voices is a terrifying follow-up to Small Spaces with thrills and chills galore and the captive foreboding of a classic ghost story.
©2019 Katherine Arden (P)2019 Listening Library
La fille dans la tour
Summary
La cour du grand-prince, à Moscou, est gangrenée par les luttes de pouvoir. Pendant ce temps, dans les campagnes, d'invisibles bandits incendient les villages, tuent les paysans et kidnappent les fillettes. Le prince Dimitri Ivanovitch n'a donc d'autre choix que de partir à leur recherche s'il ne veut pas que son peuple finisse par se rebeller. En chemin, sa troupe croise un mystérieux jeune homme chevauchant un cheval digne d'un noble seigneur. Le seul à reconnaître le garçon est un prêtre, Sacha. Et il ne peut révéler ce qu'il sait : le cavalier n'est autre que sa plus jeune sœur, qu'il a quittée il y a des années alors qu'elle n'était encore qu'une fillette, Vassia. La Fille dans la tour est le deuxième tome de la Trilogie d'une nuit d'hiver, mais peut se lire indépendamment. On y retrouve toute la poésie et la sombre cruauté des contes russes qui ont fait le succès de L'Ours et le Rossignol.
©2019 Éditions Denoël (P)2020 Audible Studios