School of Shards - (Vita Nostra) by Dyachenko (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

The haunting final chapter of the modern classic Vita Nostra trilogy. The Dyachenkos' magical dark academia novel brings the story of Sasha to a revelatory climax as she learns to take control of her powers and reshape the world...or destroy it forever. Beautifully translated from Russian by Julia Meitov Hersey.

The Institute of Special Technologies teaches students just one thing: the magic that allows them to become parts of speech, and in doing so, transforming into a specific piece of grammar (a verb, or an adjective, or an article) so they will be able to shape the world around them. As the new provost, though, Sasha is facing an enormous problem: the students in the world she just created, her "world without fear," are unable to master the curriculum. Whether it's the magic or the natural order of things, what they need to learn and become--Speech--is the basis of the material world.

And if she can't teach it, Sasha knows that matter will soon cease to exist.

To protect the world, Sasha must collect fragments of her former reality. Only three people carry these fragments within themselves: her younger brother, Valya, and the Grigoriev twins, Arthur and Pashka, the sons of her former lover, Yaroslav Grigoriev. Sasha must lure these three to the Institute and make them learn--and understand--at any cost.

But she knows how difficult the path is, even more so from the other side of the teacher's desk. Forced to act ever more ruthlessly, Sasha also notices the faster the world around the Institute changes. It is a vicious circle.

And one she must break.

To do so, she will have to shape reality again, one in which communication doesn't break down and Speech once again needs to evolve and grow and flourish.

Sasha has already given up so much in pursuit of this dream--often her nightmare--and she might be asked to make one more sacrifice so that the world and Speech might live on.

Review Quotes

"Vita Nostra is singular and brilliant--unlike anything I've ever read." -- R. F. Kuang, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Babel

"Vita Nostra --a cross between Lev Grossman's The Magicians and Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian [...] is the anti-Harry Potter you didn't know you wanted." -- Washington Post

"I was stunned by [Vita Nostra]--not just by the story, which was a revelation to me in itself, but also by the vividness and fluency and power of Hersey's translation. Vita Nostra has become a powerful influence on my own writing. It's a book that has the potential to become a modern classic of its genre, and I couldn't be more excited to see it get the global audience in English it so richly deserves." -- Lev Grossman, New York Times bestselling author of The Magicians

"Amazing book. Dark Harry Potter on steroids with a hefty dose of metaphysics." -- Aliette de Bodard, award-winning author of The Tea Master and the Detective

"As with the previous book, inventive storytelling delves into philosophical concepts such as time, meaning, and language. This is a novel that transcends genre and will astound readers looking for serious, contemporary fiction." -- Library Journal (starred review) on Assassin of Reality