“Come buy! Come buy!” While I don’t recommend that you hearken to the call of goblin men, I do highly encourage you to come and buy a copy of the debut YA fantasy novel The Sisters of the Winter Wood by Rena Rossner. Set in an Eastern European shtetl, Rossner’s story is a particularly clever retelling of one of my favorite poems, Christina Rossetti’s “Goblin Market,” that blends in Slavic folklore, Jewish traditions, and historical elements. I always love a good fairy tale retelling, but this is one of the most creative examples I’ve ever encountered that both truly honors the source material and also uses it to say something new.
Liba and Laya have always known that their family was different. Their mother is mocked by their Jewish neighbors for being a convert, while their father prefers to only associate with the few fellow Hasidim in town. But it turns out that Mami and Tati have been concealing a much bigger difference: they are shapeshifters. Liba is horrified at the thought of turning into a big, hulking bear like her father, but more terrifying is the possibility that her flighty younger sister will fly off to join their mother’s swan family. To make matters worse, the girls will have to navigate these strange changes alone, while their parents leave town to visit Tati’s dying father. At the same time, members of the town begin to go missing and a strange band of traveling merchant men arrive to hawk their irresistible fruit.
The things I loved most about this book were all the clever little tie-ins to Rossetti’s poem. The most obvious example is the slightly Jewish-ified versions of the sisters’ names: Lizzie and Laura become Liba and Laya. The Goblin men still call out their iconic refrain of “Come buy, come buy.” And single lines from the poem become full plot points in the book. For example, Rossetti gives us only the ominous verse: “We must not look at goblin men, / We must not buy their fruits: / Who knows upon what soil they fed / Their hungry thirsty roots?” In The Sisters of the Winter Wood, the sisters discover that the goblins are indeed nourishing their fruit trees through sinister means.
I also appreciated the ways in which the book elaborates upon Rossetti’s poem. The temptation of the fruit in “Goblin Market” has clearly sexual overtones, but Rossner makes these more explicit. The Sisters of the Winter Wood is a coming of age novel in which two teenage sisters discover and explore their sexuality. Laya falls in love with one of the goblin men and is tempted by the fruits he has to offer, in multiple senses, despite the warnings of her sister and their conservative religious traditions. Though Liba resists the goblins’ fruit, she too discovers her sexuality and struggles with the ways that it conflicts with her religious upbringing, her familial obligations, and the secret ability she harbors. Apart from expanding on themes already in the text, Rossner adds new meanings to elements from the poem. While Rossetti’s goblin men are merely creatures from folklore who represent temptation, Rossner gives them the additional role of standing for vicious anti-semitism. The goblins in The Sisters of the Winter Wood, thrive on casting the Jews as scapegoats and stirring up religious divisions in the town they pass through. This is particularly poignant, given that goblins have elsewhere been used to portray negative Jewish stereotypes.
If you, like me, love fairy tale retellings, Rossetti’s poem, Jewish representation, or creative YA fantasy, then you do not want to miss out on The Sisters of the Winter Wood. You can find it on shelves at your local retailer or buy it online and support The Gothic Library in the process by clicking this Bookshop.org affiliate link. Don’t forget to share your thoughts in the comments!