Menna van Praag

Menna van Praag's dazzlingly inventive real-world fantasy about the power-wielding Sisters Grimm brings together contemporary storytelling and modern fairytale to tell a frightening, thrilling, urgent tale of life, death and motherhood.

Born of bright-white wishing and black-edged desire, the Grimm girls each command a single element and wield it with great power. But a child born of a Grimm and a fallen star will have command over every element - and wield it with infinite power.

At twenty-one, Goldie gave birth to a daughter by her dead lover. Now, Goldie is nearly thirty and Luna almost nine. Conceived in the realm between life and death, Luna is part star-soldier, part Grimm and now those opposing forces are waging war within her.

Terrified of losing her increasingly volatile child, Goldie goes on the run. Then an act of violence forces her to return and Luna is taken into care. Mother and child can still meet - in the haunted otherworld that is Everwhere.

Desperate to reclaim her daughter, Goldie must also confront whatever is corrupting Everwhere. For fresh leaves are falling, and Grimm girls are dying. Fearing the return of her father, Goldie knows she cannot succeed alone and summons her sisters.

But can the bonds of sisterhood bear the terrible price that will be paid?

Menna van Praag is the author of five novels of magical realism, including The House at the End of Hope Street, and which have been translated into 26 languages. Child of Earth and Sky is the third of van Praag's Sisters Grimm series, which can be read alone or together.

Please note that this event will take place upstairs in the bookshop.