Spinning Silver

Spinning Silver is a book of intertwined stories centering loosely on fairy tales, with Miryem who takes over for her incompetent father as moneylender and becomes known as a person who can change silver into gold, with Wanda trying to help her small family survive amid poverty and a drunk father, with Irina scrambling to escape her father's desire to sell her off to the tsar. It's a rich story, with elements of Judaism, of old Russian life, of a frozen world, of cold fairies. The story has dramatic shifts in points-of-view from small chapter to small chapter, from the young brother of Wanda to the nursemaid of Irina. It's a fresh take on old stories and old themes.