A Face Like Glass

16 hrs. 14 min.

Language Russian

Author Frances Hardinge

Narrator Olga Petrova

Description

Mysterious cities, dark stories, and terrifying secrets—young heroes brave beyond their years with well-drawn psychological portraits; echoes of ancient European myths—everything is in the new book “The Island of Seagulls” by Francis Hardinge.

In the village of Woven Beasts, two sisters live—older one Skitallitsa Arilou and younger Hatin, her faithful helper. Both hide a terrible secret, but when sinister events begin to happen, the frightened sisters are forced to flee.

On the Island of Seagulls, nothing is what it seems: quarrelsome volcanoes, dangerous songs sung by forget-me-not beetles, and sometimes Skitalltsy are born—people who can send their feelings and minds flying. Sometimes a capable Skitalltsy stands somewhere in the grass and feels with his skin how it tickles his knees, while somehow managing to look ten miles out into the depths of the sea from the shore. These are vulnerable people with a special fate.

But Hatin doesn’t actually know whether Arilou is a Skitallitsa—or whether she’s simply fooling everyone around. To find out the truth, an inspector arrives on the Island of Seagulls. Hatin and her family are terrified and, even before the exam, learn what trials await Arilou. But during the inspector’s checks someone kills. Then the Skitalltsy begin to die.