From the Locus and Hugo Award-winning author, this haunting novel blends history and speculative wonder into a story of survival, loyalty and the fragile beauty of life in the darkest of times.

'an extraordinary science fiction novel' SFX MAGAZINE
'constantly surprising, moving and thought-provoking' GUARDIAN
'a must-read author' SFF WORLD
'perhaps the only writer today cooking up Le Guin's special sauce of liberation frustration and revolutionary blues' LOCUS

June 1941, Eastern Europe. As the German blitzkrieg tears across a divided continent, four young lives are thrown into chaos: Neriya, a young Jewish girl who dreams of becoming a scientist; Czesław, an underage Polish deserter fleeing the Red Army; Kezia, a Roma horse trader whose family is on the run from Soviet collectivisation; and a nameless,, abandoned boy who cannot speak.

Driven deep into the Lithuanian woods, they form an unbreakable bond with one another and with a flock of crows whose uncanny intelligence hints at a secret older and stranger than they could ever have imagined.