Marya Morevna sees the underside of the world—the magic behind the facade of normal life.

But the world is changing rapidly—each bird that falls from the tree outside and becomes a man to marry one of her sisters wears the uniform of a new army.

There is a committee of house spirits, rather than the usual single domovoi, as so many families now share the small home.

As time goes on, the house becomes more crowded, goods harder to come by, disease easier to catch. Marya begins to think she never saw magic.

But when the fourth bird bounces up from his fall, Marya is married to Koschei the Deathless, boogeyman of folklore and the Tsar of Life.

His ongoing war with his brother, the Tsar of Death, mirrors the struggle in the human world.

And Marya must fight in them both.

A fascinating story that is hard to put down—a blood-soaked, historical-fiction fairy tale.

The movements in time and dreamlike setting and pacing can cause some difficulty in keeping track of the plot, but it's well worth the read.