Redhook
The Light of the Midnight Stars has a dreamy quality which makes me think it best read with the curtains drawn and a candle lit, surrounded by comforting objects of home. Rena Rossner's second novel invites us to examine what home is, when hatred and the threat of being displaced is a constant. How to keep the fire of
Home kindled when you are scattered and your traditions — what makes home feel like home, your life feel like your life — might draw evil attention? How to survive suffering?
Rossner brings together Jewish, Romanian, and Hungarian folklore and infuses the woods and countries of 14th century Eastern Europe with secret magics. Rabbi Isaac and his three daughters are descendants of King Solomon and can work miracles. There is Sarah, the oldest, who can heal and make plants grow; Hannah, dissatisfied, vital, with the power to control fire; Levana, the youngest, a dreamy stargazer who reads doom in the skies. A black mist falls across Hungary, taking shape of a black dragon and turning all to blight. When Sarah's wedding turns to tragedy, the family loses everything and flees to another country, taking up new names and identities. There they meet Theodor of Wallachia — a prince with many secrets — and are truly embroiled in a fairy tale, complete with evil stepmothers, animal transformations, and beastly bridegrooms. Each sister struggles to come to terms with who they are now, who they were then, and who they might be.