Egg and SpoonIn this tour de force, master storyteller Gregory Maguire offers a dazzling novel for fantasy lovers of all ages. Elena Rudina lives in the impoverished Russian countryside. Her father has been dead for years. One of her brothers has been conscripted into the Tsar’s army, the other taken as a servant in the house of the local landowner. Her mother is dying, slowly, in their tiny cabin. And there is no food. But then a train arrives in the village, a train carrying untold wealth, a cornucopia of food, and a noble family destined to visit the Tsar in Saint Petersburg — a family that includes Ekaterina, a girl of Elena’s age. When the two girls’ lives collide, an adventure is set in motion, an escapade that includes mistaken identity, a monk locked in a tower, a prince traveling incognito, and — in a starring role only Gregory Maguire could have conjured — Baba Yaga, witch of Russian folklore, in her ambulatory house perched on chicken legs. |
Contents
Later | 2 |
UNTIMELY THUNDER | 7 |
The World in a Graveyard | 13 |
Farther Afield | 21 |
Double Lightning | 30 |
The Accidental Guests | 37 |
Mamenkas Gift | 43 |
Next | 47 |
Miss Yaga | 179 |
A Grey Rainbow | 185 |
A Wasp in the | 303 |
33 | 307 |
Brother | 310 |
An Audience with the Tsar | 319 |
The Second Night of the Festival | 326 |
The House of Solitary Confinement | 332 |
The Apple | 49 |
Pay Attention | 61 |
The | 72 |
IRON HORSE CHICKEN HOUSE | 85 |
Surprise | 95 |
The Hand at the Window | 102 |
The Morning Is Wiser Than the Night | 108 |
Two Cats | 121 |
Discovery | 127 |
The Hut in the Woods | 137 |
Onward to Saint Petersburg | 145 |
And Onward to Saint Petersburg | 151 |
The Reluctant Student | 158 |
The Progress of Dumb Doma | 164 |
9 | 171 |
Two Moons in the Long Wet Night | 172 |
Together | 342 |
The Snow Tornado | 354 |
Perplexity | 364 |
The Sneezing Cave | 373 |
The Starry Crown | 387 |
Still Later | 395 |
The Teeth of the Beast | 401 |
The DragonTooth | 408 |
The PartTime Hero | 415 |
A House Has Its Secrets | 423 |
Armies Meet by Moonlight | 430 |
The Norway Geese | 439 |
The Kittens Advice | 446 |
All Aboard Who Are Going Aboard | 458 |
The Doctors Advice | 467 |
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Common terms and phrases
Alexei asked Cat Baba Yaga began breath bridge Brother Uri butler called carriage Cat returned Cat's chamber child doctor doll door Dumb Doma eyes Fabergé egg father felt Firebird Firebird's egg gift girl godson going governess Grandmother Onna Great-Aunt Sophia hair hand head honeybucket ice-dragon imagine inside kitten knees Korsikov legs light lingonberries looked Luka Madame Sophia Mademoiselle Ekaterina magic Mama matryoshka Mewster Miersk Miss Bristol Miss Ekaterina Miss Yaga Monsieur d'Amboise mother Neva River never night old woman peasant Perhaps Peter Petrovich Prince Anton prison pulled replied Rudina Russian Saint Nicholas Saint Petersburg seemed shoulders side snow soldiers someone sound story tell thing thought Elena tracks train trying Tsar Tsar's turned versts village voice wait walked window winter Winter Palace witch woods Yaga's young Žmey-Aždaja