Beauty: A Novel

Beauty: A Novel

With the  critically acclaimed novels The Gate To  Women's Country, Raising The Stones , and the  Hugo-nominated Grass , Sheri  Tepper has established herself as one of the major  science fiction writers of out Time. In   Beauty , she broadens her territory even  further, with a novel that evokes all the richness of  fairy tale and fable. Drawing on the wellspring  of tales such as "Sleeping Beauty,"  Beauty is a moving novel of love and loss, hope and  despair, magic and nature. Set against a backdrop  both enchanted and frightening, the story begins  with a wicked aunt's curse that will afflict a young  woman named Beauty on her sixteenth birthday.  Though Beauty is able to sidestep tragedy, she soon  finds herself embarked on an adventure of vast  consequences. For it becomes clear that the  enchanted places of this fantastic world--a place not  unlike our own--are in danger and must be saved before  it is too late. "Tepper is a  wise and compassionate narrator, and when it comes  to spinning a yarn that you don't ever want to  stop reading, there are few better spinners than  she."-- The Magazine Of Fantasy & Science  Fiction "Magnificent. . .This adult fairly tale  entertains and delivers a message in the best  tradition of the fantasy classics."-- The  Denver Post . With the  critically acclaimed novels The Gate To  Women's Country, Raising The Stones , and the  Hugo-nominated Grass , Sheri  Tepper has established herself as one of the major  science fiction writers of out Time. In   Beauty , she broadens her territory even  further, with a novel that evokes all the richness of  fairy tale and fable. Drawing on the wellspring  of tales such as "Sleeping Beauty,"  Beauty is a moving novel of love and loss, hope and  despair, magic and nature. Set against a backdrop  both enchanted and frightening, the story begins  with a wicked aunt's curse that will afflict a young  woman named Beauty on her sixteenth birthday.  Though Beauty is able to sidestep tragedy, she soon  finds herself embarked on an adventure of vast  consequences. For it becomes clear that the  enchanted places of this fantastic world--a place not  unlike our own--are in danger and must be saved before  it is too late. From the Paperback edition. With the critically acclaimed novels "The Gate To Women's Country, Raising The Stones, and the Hugo-nominated "Grass, Sheri Tepper has established herself as one of the major science fiction writers of out Time. In "Beauty, she broadens her territory even further, with a novel that evokes all the richness of fairy tale and fable. Drawing on the wellspring of tales such as "Sleeping Beauty," Beauty is a moving novel of love and loss, hope and despair, magic and nature. Set against a backdrop both enchanted and frightening, the story begins with a wicked aunt's curse that will afflict a young woman named Beauty on her sixteenth birthday. Though Beauty is able to sidestep tragedy, she soon finds herself embarked on an adventure of vast consequences. For it becomes clear that the enchanted places of this fantastic world--a place not unlike our own--are in danger and must be saved before it is too late. "From the Paperback edition. Sheri S. Tepper  (1929–2016) is the award-winning author of  A Plague of Angels , Sideshow , Beauty , Raising the Stones , Grass , The Gate to Women's Country , After Long Silence, and  Shadow's End. Grass  was a  New York Times  Notable Book and Hugo Award nominee, and  Beauty  was voted Best Fantasy Novel by the readers of  Locus  magazine. 1    My Life in Westfaire   ST. RICHARD OF CHICHESTER’S DAY, APRIL, YEAR OF OUR LORD 1347   I never knew my mother. My father never speaks of her, though my aunts, his half sisters, make up for his silence with a loquacity which is as continuous as it is malicious. The aunts speak no good of her, whoever she was and whatever has happened to her, specifics which they avoid, however much ill they find to mutter about else. I have always thought they would not waste so much breath on her if she were dead, therefore she is probably alive, somewhere. De mortuis nil nisi bonum, Father Raymond says, but that only applies to dead people.   When I was very young I used to ask about her. (As I think any child would. It wasn’t wickedness.) First I was hushed, and when I persisted, I was punished. Nothing makes me angrier or more intent upon finding out things than having people refuse to tell me. I don’t mind when people don’t know, not really, but I hate it when they just won’t tell. It’s not practical, because it just makes others more curious. It was the aunts whispering about things that started me upon the habit of listening behind doors and dallying outside open windows. Father Raymond reproaches me for this when I confess it, though he admits it is not a very great sin. It was my own idea to confess it because it felt slightly wicked, but perhaps curiosity is not really a sin at all and I need not feel guilty about