Marie Rutkoski on Coffee with an Author 09-08-2008
If you are a fan of the renaissance, magic, or really awesome clocks you should tune in for Marie Rutkoski's interview on Coffee with an Author. Marie is the author of “The Cabinet of Wonders” her debut, young adult, fantasy novel. It is book one in a series called the Kronos Chronicles. She will be dropping by for “Coffee with an Author” on Ijustfinished.com, and taking calls, and answering readers questions. The show airs live on Monday at 10am (CST), and is hosted by blogtalkradio.com/i-just-finished, and can be replayed at anytime, or downloaded to your ipod on iTunes.
Read a review of “The Cabinet of Wonders” in Ijustfinished.com.
Here is more about the book:
THE CABINET OF WONDERS: The Kronos Chronicles: Book 1 (Farrar, Straus and Giroux / August 2008 / $16.95) by debut novelist Marie Rutkoski launches a dazzlingly imaginative literary fantasy series, which the house won at auction and which is garnering early comparisons to Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials. The critics are also enthused, with Kirkus Reviews citing it as one of the year’s Big Books in its BEA/ALA issue and Publishers Weekly including it in its list of “Galleys to Grab.”
THE CABINET OF WONDERS is set in Renaissance-era Bohemia where, due to political machinations, nearly all children with magical abilities are born into the elite class. There are rare exceptions, and twelve-year-old Petra Kronos is one. Petra lives in a countryside village with her family and her best friend, a tin spider named Astrophil. This magical creature was crafted by her father, who can shape metal with his mind. Mr. Kronos’s skill soon captures the attention of Prince Rodolfo, who commissions him to build a clock in Prague’s center. To Petra’s horror, her father returns home blind: the prince has stolen her father’s eyes, enchanted them, and wears them. Petra determines to travel alone to Prague to save her father’s eyes. During her quest, Petra discovers that she has magic of her own and that her father’s clock has powers capable of destroying their world.
According to Ms. Rutkoski, the genesis of the story sprang from an actual Czech legend as well as from powerful elements in her own life. “The origin of the book was a trip with my grandmother to visit family in Prague. My cousin David took me to see the city’s famous astrological clock. He revealed that the man who commissioned the clock had the eyes of the clockmaker gouged out. The legend made a great impression upon me. It also struck close to home as my mother has battled blindness most of her life. The combination of the personal and the historical prompted my writing a story about a parent who has lost his sight and a child who desperately wants to help,” she says.
The next book in the series, The Celestial Globe, is scheduled for Fall 2009. Ms. Rutkoski provides this sneak peek: “Petra and her tin spider are secretly spirited away to London. As she struggles to escape, her friends Neel and Tomik sail the high seas hoping to find her. Though separated by many miles, Petra, Astrophil, Tomik, and Neel draw closer together in the second book, which includes man-made monsters, the unraveling of a murder mystery, a little romance, and the hunt for a powerful object the prince of Bohemia will do anything to possess: the Celestial Globe.”
Peopled by a rich cast of characters, set in a great and terrible land, THE CABINET OF WONDERS introduces an unforgettable heroine who, while on her adventure, crosses paths with political intrigue, power misused, and the beautiful risks we’ll take for those we love. The audiobook version of THE CABINET OF WONDERS, narrated by Audie Award-winner Lorelei King, is also available from MacmillanYoung Listeners.
Marie Rutkoski attended the University of Iowa, where she took undergraduate classes in the famed Writer’s Workshop and was the editor in chief of the school’s undergraduate literary magazine. She holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University in English literature. Currently a professor of English literature at Brooklyn College, Ms. Rutkoski teaches Renaissance literature, children’s literature, and creative writing. She lives in New York City.
THE CABINET OF WONDERS: The Kronos Chronicles Book 1
by Marie Rutkoski
978-0-374-31026-4
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
August 7, 2008 / $16.95 / 272 pages
Please join us and enjoy the conversation with this creative and inspiring author!