THE FIREBIRD
by
Susanna Kearsley
The Winter Sea has been my longtime
favorite book written by Susanna Kearsley. Each time I finish the book,
however, I yearn for more. Kearsley has delivered more with The Firebird. Although the book stands
alone – and stars one of her characters from a different book – we follow, or
learn more about, many of the characters from The Winter Sea.
In The Firebird, as in many of Kearsley’s
novels, we learn of the history through a present day person. Nicola Marter,
like her friend Rob McMorran (Robbie from one of Kearsley’s previous novels),
has parapsychological abilities. Nicola works in a gallery, and is scheduled to
travel to Russia for gallery business. When her boss declined to buy a wooden
firebird from a seller, because there was no proof demonstrating that it had
been given to the seller’s family by Empress Catherine, Nicola decided to try
to find the provenance for the firebird during her upcoming trip.
A firebird, Nicola explains to Rob, is “’a
bird out of folklore, with bright glowing feathers, like flame. One feather
would light a whole room, and it’s said that whenever a firebird’s feather
falls, then a new art will spring up in that place.’” (p. 65). The firebird,
according to Nicola, can be found in several old Russian fairy tales.
Nicola and
Rob trace the firebird’s history through Anna, one of Kearsley’s characters
from The Winter Sea. By using their
psychic abilities, they are able to follow the provenance for the firebird,
while we learn more about the history of the Jacobites, as well as about characters
from The Winter Sea and some new
characters. Unsurprisingly, there are striking parallels between Anna’s history
and Nicola and Rob’s modern day.
I loved
every minute of being reunited with the many friends from The Winter Sea who also appear in The Firebird. But now, I cannot determine which of Kearsley’s books
is my favorite; for the moment, I believe it’s a dead heat between The Winter Sea and The Firebird.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
No comments:
Post a Comment