Palaces of the Crow SIGNED FIRST EDITION
New York: MCD, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2026.
First Edition. Hardcover. Signed by Ray Nayler in ink to illustrated page specially bound in by the publisher. Stated First Edition with full number line indicating first printing. 8 1/2" X 5 1/2". 370pp. Faint shelfwear to unclipped dust jacket featuring artwork by Maria Jesus Contreras. Bound in black paper over boards, with murder of crows flying above a stand of trees stamped in black to upper board and spine lettered in kind. Gentle bumping to head and tail of spine, else fine. Binding is firm, tight, and sound. Pages are clean, crisp, unmarked, and unread. A highly presentable signed first edition of the newest speculative masterpiece from the Ray Bradbury Prize and Arthur C. Clarke Award finalist, and Hugo and Locus Award winner, Ray Nayler.
ABOUT THIS BOOK:
In Ray Nayler’s speculative novel of the recent past, four young teens caught between Nazis and the Red Army survive winter in the woods with the help of a flock of highly intelligent crows with a magnificent secret of their own to protect.
Neriya, a young Jewish girl who dreams of becoming a biologist, has befriended a local flock of crows in her shtetl. Czeslaw is an underage Polish soldier who deserts the Red Army and runs into the freezing Lithuanian woods. Kezia is a Roma horse trader whose family is on the run from Soviet collectivization. As the German blitzkrieg crashes across the border in June 1941, all three are caught up in the onslaught. Along with Innokentiy, an abandoned boy who cannot speak, they are driven into the primeval forest, where they survive by forming an unbreakable bond with one another—and with Neriya’s intelligent crows, who for years have been bringing her intricate gifts suggesting they are no ordinary corvids.
As the war goes on, the crows warn the children of danger and help them hide from the human threats of the forest—not only the Germans but also Russian deserters, Polish partisans, fascist Lithuanian police, and the other bandits and outcasts wandering the benighted landscape.
From the Ray Bradbury Prize and Arthur C. Clarke Award finalist, and Hugo and Locus Award winner, Ray Nayler, Palaces of the Crow blends history and haunting speculative wonder into a story of survival, loyalty and the fragile beauty of life in the darkest of times. (Publisher). Very good + / near fine. Item #17650
ISBN: 9780374620752
Price: $45.00