The Wise and the Wicked

Rebecca Podos, Lambda Literary Award–winning author of Like Water, returns with a lush, dark, and unforgettable story of the power of the past to shape our futures—and the courage it takes to change them.

Ruby Chernyavsky has been told the stories since she was a child: The women in her family, once possessed of great magical abilities to remake lives and stave off death itself, were forced to flee their Russian home for America in order to escape the fearful men who sought to destroy them.

Such has it always been, Ruby’s been told, for powerful women.

Today, these stories seem no more real to Ruby than folktales, except for the smallest bit of power left in their blood: when each of them comes of age, she will have a vision of who she will be when she dies—a destiny as inescapable as it is inevitable.

Ruby is no exception, and neither is her mother, although she ran from her fate years ago, abandoning Ruby and her sisters. It’s a fool’s errand, because they all know the truth: there is no escaping one’s Time.

Until Ruby’s great-aunt Polina passes away, and, for the first time, a Chernyavsky’s death does not match her vision. Suddenly, things Ruby never thought she’d be allowed to hope for—life, love, time—seem possible.

But as she and her cousin Cece begin to dig into the family’s history to find out whether they, too, can change their fates, they learn that nothing comes without a cost. Especially not hope.

• Sisterhood and Secrets: Ruby and her cousin Cece must delve into their family’s hidden past, but the truths connecting the women of their line are darker than any folktale.
• Modern-Day Magic: In a world of part-time jobs and high school, the Chernyavsky women carry a heavy gift—the inescapable vision of their own deaths.
• Fate Versus Free Will: When a crack appears in their family’s unbreakable destiny, Ruby dares to hope for a future she was never meant to have, but every miracle has a price.
• A Touch of Romance: Amidst unraveling family curses, a tentative romance with a mysterious new boy offers a glimpse of a normal life, if such a thing is even possible for a Chernyavsky woman.