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WORDS BY CHARLOTTE GRIFFITHS THE SISTERS GRIMM BY MENNA VAN PRAAG THIS NEW NOVEL FROM THE CAMBRIDGE-BASED AUTHOR IS A FANTASTICAL FAIRY TALE FOR THE MODERN FEMINIST AGE the tale of four sisters, their fates laid out before you even open the book in bold text on the beautifully-gilded cover: “Three will live. One will die.” Billed as a feminist fairytale for the modern age, this hugely imaginative and vast-in-scope story follows a quartet of women on the edge of 18 – Goldie, Bea, Liyana and Scarlet. They are half-sisters, all born on the same day to different mothers and who all possess forgotten magical abilities. As they struggle with the realities of regular day-to-day life – ageing relatives, minimum-wage work, parenthood, sexuality – they must also come to terms with their own identities, rediscover their inner abilities and ultimately do battle against their golden- eyed father, Wilhelm Grimm, who wants he Sisters Grimm is the latest novel and first in a new fantasy trilogy from Cambridge-based author Menna van Praag, which tells
while dreaming of her girlfriend, and Scarlet is taking part in a blacksmith’s experience day. Their individual tragedies and backstories unfold swiftly in short, bite-sized chapters, racing between the sisters’ different perspectives and two timelines in increasingly popular present tense. In Goldie’s chapters, her story is told in first person present, which further heightens the sense of intimacy and immediacy that’s signposted by the constant presence of the countdown. Early in the book Goldie meets the enigmatic Leo, a gifted student at Cambridge’s St John’s College – whose parallel identity is that of a lumen latros, an otherworldly Star Soldier who needs to vanquish the Grimm sisters in order to survive. Goldie soon develops a crush on this handsome young man, but Leo knows Goldie’s true identity as a Grimm even before she does: it turns out there are not just four Grimm sisters, and the Grimms and Star Soldiers have been at war for generations. It’s Leo’s task to make
his powerful daughters to join him on the dark side and inflict devastation on the world. The book opens 33 days before an as-yet-unspecified event, and we’re introduced to the four women in quick succession: Goldie is trying to make ends meet and fending off the unwanted advances of a co-worker; philosophy student Bea is relishing the experience of flying a glider across the Fens; Liyana is in her literal and figurative element, swimming in a hotel’s luxurious pool
“The whispers that speak of unknown things, the signs that point in unseen directions”
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