The Familiar

AN INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER‘A richly imagined, intricate tale of magic and intrigue’ DEBORAH HARKNESS, #1 bestselling author of A Discovery of Witches‘Riveting… Leigh Bardugo's characters are so three dimensional you want to reach through the page’ DIANA GABALDON, #1 bestselling author of Outlander‘A wonderful, transporting ride through history… a deeply romantic novel’ KATHERINE ARDEN, bestselling author of The Bear and The Nightingale-----FATE CAN BE CHANGED. CURSES CAN BE BROKEN. In a shabby house in the new capital of Madrid, Luzia Cotado uses scraps of magic to get through her days of endless toil.

But when her scheming mistress discovers her scullion is hiding a talent for little miracles, she demands Luzia use those gifts to win over the royal court. Determined to seize this chance to better her fortunes, Luzia plunges into a world of power-hungry nobility, desperate kings, holy men and seers, where the lines between magic, science and fraud blur. With the pyres of the Inquisition burning, she must use every bit of her wit and resilience to win fame and hide the truth of her ancestry – even if that means enlisting the help of an embittered immortal familiar, whose own secrets could cost her everything.

From the Sunday Times bestselling author comes a bewitching novel, brimming with peril in a world where a woman’s ambition can prove deadly. -----PRAISE FOR LEIGH BARDUGO'S BOOKS‘Reading Bardugo is an immersive, sensual experience... One can’t help sinking into Luzia and Santángel’s world and wishing never to leave’ THE NEW YORK TIMES‘A compelling, well-researched and vividly written tale of magic and desire’THE GUARDIAN‘The Familiar feels distinct from similar tales ? including Bardugo’s own ? because it explores a brutal and shameful real-life history...

Bardugo brilliantly explores the wavy line between the supernatural and the divine’WASHINGTON POST'A pacy read with electric prose' INDEPENDENT on Six of Crows'Impossible to put down'STEPHEN KING, on Ninth House