Adrift in Currents Clean and Clear

November 18, 2024
For the sensitive and eerie 10th standalone portal fantasy in the Hugo Award–winning Wayward Children series (after Mislaid in Parts Half-Known), bestseller McGuire expands the backstory of Russian orphan Nadya Sokolov. Nadya was born with a stump for a right arm and raised by the state until she was adopted by American missionaries and taken to Denver. Though she’s quite capable with only one hand, her adoptive parents still insist on buying her a prosthetic arm to make her “whole,” which only increases her feelings of alienation. When she falls through a watery doorway into Belyyreka, the Land Beneath the Lake, an aquatic world whose people live in partnership with giant turtles, Nadya is happy to find a new home, family, and sense of belonging. But Belyyreka has many dangers, and she’ll have to fight to maintain her life there. The setting is evocative and mysterious, and McGuire makes Nadya’s attempts to find her place in the world stirring while touching upon disability rights issues and quietly condemning parents who see children (adoptive or otherwise) as status symbols rather than people. Newcomers are sure to be sucked in, and though longtime readers of the series already know how Nadya’s story ends, they’ll enjoy seeing where it began. This is another gem from McGuire. Agent: Diana Fox, Fox Literary.