Laya, on the other hand, writes in verse and often leaves out her thoughts or other crucial information. Liba always writes in normal prose and is matter-of-fact and a bit of an oversharer (to the reader but not to her fellow characters). Liba and Laya alternate narrating chapters as the plot progresses. This is not to say that the plot lacks propulsion or the characters are unworthy of the reader’s attention. Mix in the novel’s intricate evocation of pre-Soviet Russian folklore and the setting becomes reason enough to keep on reading. Rossner’s novel brings both of these to the fore, making it worthwhile simply on an ethnographic level. Few works of literature, in print or on screen, are set in the primeval forests of Bessarabia or focus on traditional rural Jewish life. The strongest element of The Sisters of the Winter Wood is definitely the setting. Though The Sisters of the Winter Wood is young adult literature and suffers from some of the problems endemic to that type of writing-side characters making nonsensical, plot-servicing decisions, teenaged point-of-view characters being angsty teens and too much repetition of characters’ thoughts and emotions-the book has enough suspense and character development to keep the pages turning. Rena Rossner’s novel is set in Dubossary, a city in current-day Moldova, in approximately the year 1900 and features two sisters, the bookish Liba and the beautiful Laya, as co-protagonists. The Sisters of the Winter Wood takes the rich and violent history of 19th-century Jews living in the Pale of Settlement and mixes in a bit of magic and a few fairy tale tropes to weave an engaging story of two sisters struggling to enter adulthood.
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