Ansuz - (Whisper of the Ravens) by Malene Sølvsten (Hardcover)

About the Book

"The girl's slim neck was exposed above the low neckline of her dress, and it glowed nearly white in the light of the moon. A stream of icy fear ran through my chest as the man grabbed the other end of the cord and held it taut before him. 'Watch out, ' I shouted uselessly. She could not hear me, after all. I was not there, and this had already happened, maybe a few months ago, maybe hundreds of years." Anna is a loner who only hangs out with her dog Monster. She's used to others either dismissing her or looking right through her, but when high school starts back up, she's suddenly surrounded by classmates seeking her company. Why do good-looking Mathias, charming Luna, and alluring Varnar suddenly want to be friends with her? Can she trust them, or is there something behind it? Anna can see events in the past, but the dream-like visions suddenly become very real when a series of bestial muders of young girls take place in the area of northern Denmark where she lives. Murders that she has seen in her dreams. Anna soon learns the murders are linked to an ancient prophecy of Ragnarèok and supernatural forces are at work because her new friends are directly connected to the Norse gods, and all carry a knowledge of who she really is"--

Book Synopsis

Part thriller, part fantasy, this book will appeal to anyone interested in the supernatural, murder mysteries, or Norse mythology.

For fans of The Raven Boys and American Gods.

Fantasy, crime, and Norse gods come together when it emerges that a series of bestial murders is connected with an ancient prophecy about the end of the world. Anna can see events from the past, and one night she glimpses an old and horrible murder: a red-haired girl is killed and a rune carved into her back. Shortly afterward, someone begins killing red-haired girls in the same manner, and the rune is found on all of them. Suddenly the little town is full of strangers. They have mysterious powers, and are drawn to Anna, who isn't used to being near other people. Several of the strangers want to help her, but it takes a long time before she knows which of them she can trust. Playing on such classic themes as good versus evil, the book is at once a fantasy, a thriller, and a coming-of-age story.

About the Author

Malene Sølvsten made her debut in 2016 with the first volume of the fantasy trilogy 'Whisper of the Ravens' and was nominated for the Readers' Book Prize (Læsernes Bogpris) in the same year. The series quickly became a surprise success and bestseller in Denmark, for which the author received the Edvard Prisen, awarded annually by the Danish Library Association, in 2018. An economist by training, she lives with her family in Copenhagen, where she now works as a full-time author.

Translator Adrienne Alair is a literary translator working from Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish into English. She studied Scandinavian Studies at the University of Edinburgh and has lived in Sweden and Denmark. She is now based in Charlotte, North Carolina.