Vita Nostra: A Novel (Vita Nostra, 1)

Vita Nostra a cross between Lev Grossmans The Magicians and Elizabeth Kostovas The Historian [...] is the anti-Harry Potter you didnt know you wanted. -- The Washington Post Vita Nostra has become a powerful influence on my own writing. Its a book that has the potential to become a modern classic of its genre, and I couldnt be more excited to see it get the global audience in English it so richly deserves. -- Lev Grossman Best Books of November 2018 -- Paste Magazine The definitive English language translation of the internationally acclaimed Russian novela brilliant dark fantasy combining psychological suspense, enchantment, and terror that makes us consider human existence in a fresh and provocative way. Our life is brief . . . Sasha Samokhina has been accepted to the Institute of Special Technologies. Or, more precisely, shes been chosen. Situated in a tiny village, she finds the students are bizarre, and the curriculum even more so. The books are impossible to read, the lessons obscure to the point of maddening, and the work refuses memorization. Using terror and coercion to keep the students in line, the school does not punish them for their transgressions and failures; instead, it is their families that pay a terrible price. Yet despite her fear, Sasha undergoes changes that defy the dictates of matter and time; experiences which are nothing she has ever dreamed of . . . and suddenly all she could ever want. A complex blend of adventure, magic, science, and philosophy that probes the mysteries of existence, filtered through a distinct Russian sensibility, this astonishing work of speculative fictionbrilliantly translated by Julia Meitov Herseyis reminiscent of modern classics such as Lev Grossmans The Magicians, Max Barrys Lexicon, and Katherine Ardens The Bear and the Nightingale, but will transport them to a place far beyond those fantastical worlds.