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Olesya Salnikova Gilmore was born in Moscow, Russia, raised in the United States, and graduated from Pepperdine University with a BA in English and Political Science, and from Northwestern Pritzker School of Law with a JD. She practised litigation at a large law firm for several years before pursuing her dream of becoming an author. She is most happy writing historical fiction and fantasy inspired by Eastern European folklore. She lives in a wooded lakeside suburb of Chicago with her husband and daughter. The Witch and the Tsar is her debut novel.
<p style="margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-left: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">‘A delicate weaving of myth and history, The Witch and the Tsar breathes new life into stories you think you know’ Hannah Whitten, New York Times bestselling author of For the Wolf</p><p style="margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-left: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Yaga lives deep in the Russian forest, tending to any that call upon her for her healing potions and vast wisdom.</p><p style="margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-left: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">She has been alone for centuries, with only her beloved animals for company. But, when Tsaritsa Anastasia, wife of Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich, shows up at Yaga’s cottage on the brink of death, Yaga is compelled to travel with her to Moscow to keep her safe.</p><p style="margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-left: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">However, the Russia Yaga sees as she makes her journey to the heart of the country is one on the brink of chaos. Tsar Ivan – soon to become Ivan the Terrible – grows more volatile and tyrannical by the day, and Yaga believes the tsaritsa is being poisoned by an unknown enemy. But what Yaga cannot know is that Ivan is being manipulated by powers far older and more fearsome than anyone can imagine.</p><p style="margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.3em; margin-left: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Set in sixteenth-century Russia, The Witch and the Tsar upends the stories we know of Baba Yaga as the bony-legged witch of Slavic fairy tales and the stuff of nightmares. For beyond the rumours of her iron nose, fangs for teeth, and house on chicken legs, is the story of a woman so wise and strong that she has to be cloaked in lies to hide her true power.</p>
