The Witch and the Tsar SIGNED FIRST AUTHORITATIVE FOX AND WIT EDITION

New York: Ace, 2022. First Edition. Hardcover. Very good/very good. First Edition. Hardcover. Signed by the author in ink to bookplate. First Edition with full number line indicating first printing. 9 1/4" X 6 1/4". 420pp. Book comes with original dust jacket as well as Fox & Wit exclusive dust jacket. Mild shelf wear to covers, corners, and edges of jackets. Bound in red paper over boards with spine backed in blue and lettered in gilt. Pages are clean and unmarked. Binding is sound. Includes a typed card from the author explaining the inspiration behind the book.

ABOUT THIS BOOK:
In this stunning debut novel, the maligned and immortal (truncated) witch of legend known as Baba Yaga will risk all to save her country and her people from Tsar Ivan the Terrible—and the dangerous gods who seek to drive the twisted hearts of men.

As a half-goddess possessing magic, Yaga is used to living on her own, her prior entanglements with mortals having led to heartbreak. She mostly keeps to her hut in the woods, where those in need of healing seek her out, even as they spread rumors about her supposed cruelty and wicked spells. But when her old friend Anastasia—now the wife of the tsar, and suffering from a mysterious illness—arrives in her forest desperate for her protection, Yaga realizes the fate of all of Russia is tied to Anastasia's. Yaga must step out of the shadows to protect the land she loves.

As she travels to Moscow, Yaga witnesses a sixteenth century Russia on the brink of chaos. Tsar Ivan—soon to become Ivan the Terrible—grows more volatile and tyrannical by the day, and Yaga believes the tsaritsa is being poisoned by an unknown enemy. But what Yaga cannot know is that Ivan is being manipulated by powers far older and more fearsome than anyone can imagine.

Olesya Salnikova Gilmore weaves a rich tapestry of mythology and Russian history, reclaiming and reinventing the infamous Baba Yaga, and bringing to life a vibrant and tumultuous Russia, where old gods and new tyrants vie for power. This fierce and compelling novel draws from the timeless lore to create a heroine for the modern day, fighting to save her country and those she loves from oppression while also finding her true purpose as a goddess, a witch, and a woman.(Publisher). (Inventory #: 13300)