The Shadow Behind the Stars
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- £7.99
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- £7.99
Publisher Description
A girl’s dark destiny could cause the unraveling of the world in this “shattering and transcendent” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) novel from the author of A Creature of Moonlight.
Heed this warning, mortal: stay far away from the three sister Fates. For if they come to love you, they might bring about the end of the world…
Chloe is the youngest. Hers are the fingers that choose the wool, that shape the thread, that begin it. The sun smiles upon her. Men love her without knowing who she is. She has lived forever and will live forever more. She and her sisters have been on their isolated Greek island for longer than any mortal can remember. They spin, measure, and slice the countless golden threads of human life. They are the three Fates, and they have stayed separate for good reason: it is dangerous for them to become involved with the humans whose lives they shape.
So when a beautiful girl named Aglaia shows up on their doorstep, Chloe tries to make sure her sisters don’t become attached. But in seeking to protect them, Chloe discovers the dark power of Aglaia’s destiny. As her path unwinds, the three Fates find themselves pulled inextricably along—toward mortal pain, and mortal love, and a fate that could unravel the world.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this delicately crafted tragedy, the three Fates reencounter love, vulnerability, and mortality when Aglaia, the desperate survivor of a raid that destroyed her village, arrives on the island where they have retreated from the too-painful human world. Hahn (A Creature of Moonlight) captures the dueling beauties of human life and inhuman fate in poetic prose; Aglaia's hair "rivaled the white stone walls for blinding glory," while the sisters "must love the beauty of threads, shiver at the mystery that lies at either end." If they stray from their duty of crafting human destinies, the world will end. Chloe, the youngest and, she believes, strongest of the Fates, plans to drown Aglaia rather than risk her sisters becoming entangled with a mortal. But Chloe is not as immune to Aglaia's lure as she thinks, and soon all three are caught up in her efforts to avenge the raid and secure a future for her infant child, the product of rape. While the story is initially slow to get underway, it builds to a conclusion that is satisfying and true. Ages 12 up.
