shopping cart
Save up to 30% on our Staff Picks
Call us: 800-878-7323 HELP
McAfee SECURE helps keep you safe from identity theft, credit card fraud, spyware, spam, viruses and online scams.
Original Essays | September 23, 2009

Jonathan Lethem: IMG Stops: On Those Things My New Novel Forgot to Be About, Maybe

0 comments By Jonathan Lethem

For me, there's a weird, unfathomable gulf — I almost wrote gulp — between the completion of a novel and its publication. Some days this duration feels interminable, as though the book has... Continue »
  1. $19.56 Sale Hardcover add to wish list

    Chronic City

    Jonathan Lethem
Ships free on qualified orders.
Add to Cart
$7.99
New Mass Market
Ships in 1 to 3 days
Add to Wishlist
Qty Store Section
1 Burnside Science Fiction and Fantasy- A to Z
1 Hawthorne Science Fiction and Fantasy- A to Z
18 Local Warehouse Science Fiction and Fantasy- Fantasy- Contemporary
8 Remote Warehouse Science Fiction and Fantasy- Fantasy- Historical

More copies of this ISBN:

This title in other formats:

A Princess of Roumania

by Paul Park

A Princess of Roumania Cover

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

This is a truly magical tale, full of strangeness, terrors and wonders. Many girls daydream that they are really a princess adopted by commoners. In the case of teenager Miranda Popescu, this is literally true. Because she is at the fulcrum of a deadly political battle between conjurers in an alternate world where "Roumania" is a leading European power, Miranda was hidden by her aunt in our world, where she was adopted and raised in a quiet Massachusetts college town.

The narrative is split between our world and the people in Roumania working to protect or to capture Miranda: her Aunt Aegypta Schenck versus the mad Baroness Ceaucescu in Bucharest, and the sinister alchemist, the Elector of Ratisbon, who holds her true mother prisoner in Germany. This is the story of how Miranda — with her two best friends, Peter and Andromeda — is brought back to her home reality. Each of them is changed in the process and all will have much to learn about their true identities and the strange world they find themselves in.

This story is a triumph of contemporary fantasy.

Review:

"Paul Park knows fairy tales, contemporary and classic fantasy."

(The Washington Post)

Review:

"A powerful novel that should appeal to adult and sophisticated young adult audiences."

(Rocky Mountain News)

back to top

About the Author

PAUL PARK lives in North Adams, MA
back to top

What Our Readers Are Saying

Add a comment for a chance to win!
Average customer rating based on 1 comment:
Jenna Hart, November 28, 2007 (view all comments by Jenna Hart)
In the eighteenth century in an alternate world England has been devastated by a tsunami like wave while in central Europe Roumania and Germany battle for control. Sorceress Aegypta Schenck conjures up a magic tome that enables her to hide young Miranda Popescu in our world's Massachusetts to elude the evil black tyranny of Baroness Nicola Ceausescu. She is the hope for the future as the "white tyger" regal descendant.

With her niece safe, Aegypta tries to set the stage for her triumphant return. At the same time Ceausescu searches to find and destroy her only rival. When the Baroness abetted by her necromancer elector succeeds, she brings Miranda accompanied by her friends Andromeda and Peter into a realm so unlike what any of them have ever seen before. As Andromaeda is changed into a dog and then a noble and Peter lives up to his sire a warrior from this world, Miranda begins the first slow steps towards the challenge that will decide the destiny of a planet.

The key to this delightful fantasy that targets the Harry Potter class is the powerful alternate historical backdrop to Europe that makes the two world scenario seems genuine. Miranda and her allies are terrific younger heroes struggling with the abrupt changes in their lives especially an adversary who wants her eliminated. The Baroness is a vile villain who fans will hiss at. Fantasy fans of all ages will enjoy this fine dual worlds thriller.
Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No
(4 of 7 readers found this comment helpful)
report this comment
back to top

Product Details

ISBN:
9780765349507
Author:
Park, Paul
Publisher:
Tor Books
Subject:
Mothers and daughters
Subject:
Fantasy - Historical
Subject:
Fantasy - Contemporary
Subject:
Teenage girls
Subject:
Fantasy fiction
Publication Date:
March 2009
Binding:
Mass Market Paperbound
Language:
English
Pages:
469
Dimensions:
680x426x127 49
back to top

Other books you might like

  1. $16.95 Used Hardcover add to wish list

    Accelerando

    Charles Stross
  2. $5.50 Used Mass Market add to wish list

    Lady of Mazes

    Karl Schroeder
  3. $4.95 Used Mass Market add to wish list

    Child of a Rainless Year

    Jane Lindskold
  4. $5.50 Used Mass Market add to wish list

    Pushing Ice

    Alastair Reynolds
  5. $7.95 Used Trade Paper add to wish list

    The Silver Bough

    Lisa Tuttle
  6. $2.88 Used Hardcover add to wish list

    The War of the Flowers

    Tad Williams
back to top

Related Aisles

  • back to top

Powell's City of Books is an independent bookstore in Portland, Oregon, that fills a whole city block with more than a million new, used, and out of print books. Shop those shelves — plus literally millions more books, DVDs, and eBooks — here at Powells.com.