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Langrish blends medieval Catholicism and old folk beliefs seamlessly with the supernatural. In late-12th-century England, on the Welsh border, young Wolf flees from a monastery, desperate for a life safer and wider than a browbeaten monkhood. On the desolate landscape, a hunt erupts—Lord Hugo, dogs, wolves, horses and an eerie, naked elf, who vanishes into a hill. Seeing a position as squire as his escape route, Wolf squeezes underground and drags out the pale, ferocious elf-child to impress Hugo. Hugo believes elves hold his dead wife captive and charges Wolf with teaching terrified Elfgift to speak so she can guide Hugo to reclaim his beloved. Wolf befriends Hugo’s daughter, Nest; they work together to gentle Elfgift, but Brother Thomas, Wolf’s brutal former master, and Halewyn, a dangerously charismatic jongleur who never takes off his donkey-eared hood, stir up violent chaos. Wolf and Nest’s religious faith never wavers as they puzzle out what’s supernatural, what’s dangerous and what’s simply emotional yearning in a narrative that masterfully allows every possibility to exist. Never telling and always showing, this spooky yet utterly grounded story features pitch-perfect prose, suspense and redemption. (Historical fantasy. 10-14)
