The Life of Elves

A beguiling fairy tale by the bestselling author of The Elegance of the Hedgehog (The New York Times).

The villagers had never seen anything like it: dense white curtains of snow that instantly transformed the landscape. Not in autumn, not here in Burgundy. And on the same night a baby was discovered, dark-eyed little Maria, who would transform all their lives. Hundreds of miles away in the mountains of Abruzzo, another foundling, Clara, astonishes everyone with her extraordinary talent for piano playing. But her gifts go far beyond simple musicianship. As a time of great danger looms, though the girls know nothing of each other, it is the bond that unites them and others like them which will ultimately offer the only chance for good to prevail in the world.

Vivid imagery and a thread of mystery draw readers into the timeless and ethereal world of these young girls with a destiny to fulfill. –Booklist

The novel is essentially a parable about the power both of art, which abolishes the ‘border between earth and mind, ’ and of women. –The New Yorker

Fans of both Barbery and fantasy from writers like Alice Hoffman and Sarah Addison Allen will be enchanted. –Library Journal