Praise for The River Has Roots
"This book is lyrical, elegant, and above all, kind. Amal El-Mohtar is quite simply one of the best writers on the scene in ages." —T. Kingfisher, New York Times bestselling author of A Sorceress Comes To Call
"Half delicious murder ballad, half beguiling love story, Amal El-Mohtar transports us to Faerieland so seamlessly it seems as though she just stepped out of it." —Holly Black, #1 New York Times bestselling author
"A book you’ll want to revisit like a favorite song, especially once you know the words to sing along." —Kirkus, starred review
"... a marvelous story that pulls on old Grimm fairy tales of violence and truth telling, of what it means to be sisters in a story of fae and folklore, and of the kind of true love that exists between sisters." —Booklist, starred review
"A murder ballad in book form that will linger long after the final page is turned." —Library Journal, starred review
"El-Mohtar’s ethereal prose paints a clear picture of the unbreakable bond between her worthy heroines." —Publishers Weekly
“When it comes to storytelling, Amal El-Mohtar is like one of the grammarians of Thistleford, a magician capable of deftly transforming the familiar into the unfamiliar and the numinous into the humane.” —Fonda Lee, author of the Green Bone Saga
"Gorgeous and glorious! Every sentence sings!" —Sarah Beth Durst, New York Times bestselling author of The Spellshop
"The River Has Roots is the perfect fable: both bright and brutal, very old and brand new. It's a story that outlasts itself, lingering like a song; I adored it.” —Alix E. Harrow, New York Times bestselling author of Starling House
"The River Has Roots is truly exquisite." —Zoraida Córdova, USA Today bestselling author of The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina
"The River Has Roots has all the dark comforts of an old tale and all the light vigors of a new classic, and will inspire you to raise your voice in song with those you love." —Emma Törzs, author of Ink Blood Sister Scribe
"The River Has Roots is about love, and language, and how language is always a kind of sorcery, and El-Mohtar’s writing is a demonstration, too, of this sorcery in action." —Kelly Link, author of The Book of Love
“A lyrical embodiment of language and song, The River Has Roots is dreamy and lush, lyrical and vivid. Amal El-Mohtar is a sorceress.” —Ananda Lima, author of Craft: Stories I Wrote for the Devil
“Amal El-Mohtar knows how to reel us in with beautiful prose and some of the most dazzling writing that we've seen.” —Cosmo
"El-Mohtar delivers a meditation on love—between sisters and between lovers—on language, magic, loyalty, and transformation." —Locus
"El-Mohtar is one of our finest crafters of sentences." —Esquire
Gem Carmella narrates a magical novella inspired by traditional ballads. Sisters Esther and Ysabel use their musical talents to tend the enchanted willow their family has honored for generations. When an unwanted suitor appears, everything they love is suddenly at risk. Carmella's narration perfectly blends the fantastical elements of fairy tales with the macabre elements of traditional murder ballads, capturing Esther's emotional turmoil as she is faced with an unwanted decision. As Esther navigates between two very different suitors in entirely different worlds, Carmella deftly portrays her agony at what each choice will mean. Musical effects combine with Carmella's singing at key moments, making fraught scenes utterly devastating but ultimately more powerful. A stunning performance. K.M.P. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2025, Portland, Maine
★ 2025-03-08
Two sisters fight their way back to each other across death and Faerie through riddle songs and murder ballads.
After co-writing the epistolary enemies-to-lovers SF novelThis Is How You Lose the Time War (2019) with Max Gladstone, El-Mohtar makes a solo debut featuring another haunting harmony. The town of Thistleford is known for the grammar, or transformative magic, that flows from the Faerie land of Arcadia to be conjugated in the River Liss and translated through the Professors, the pair of willow trees rooted into its banks. The Hawthorn family is known for its willow-wood business as well as the stirring duets of sisters Esther and Ysabel: respectively, the gregarious elder daughter cheekily composing riddle songs for her immortal lover and the shy younger beauty who can belt a murder ballad but secretly wishes to be the adored subject of a beloved’s poem. When a greedy mortal suitor forcibly separates the sisters on opposite sides of Arcadia’s border, they must bridge an impossible distance measured only by how far the voice can reach. True to the title, darkness lurks just beneath the surface of this story, in which death is cruel yet not without its lingual loopholes. El-Mohtar’s blend of prose and poetry will catch readers in its fast-moving flow, even if the magic system requires multiple rereads. The core tale will be relatable regardless of a reader’s genre affinity: an ode to sisters’ secret languages, a paean to petty adolescent envy reshaped into the foundation for growing together into adulthood, an anthem for bloody retribution. The only slightly bitter note is the rather neat resolution, but the poetic justice nonetheless adds up to a satisfying performance.
A book you’ll want to revisit like a favorite song, especially once you know the words to sing along.
