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• The Starless Sea ( novel) Doubleday (New York, NY), 2019

1. The starless sea LCCN 2018056020 Type of material Book Personal name Morgenstern, Erin, author. Main title The starless sea / a novel by Erin Morgenstern. Edition First edition. Published/Produced New York : Doubleday, [2019] Projected pub date 1911 Description 1 online resource. ISBN 9780385541220 (ebook)

• Erin Morgenstern website - https://erinmorgenstern.com/

  About Erin Morgenstern:
  I am the author of The Night Circus (2011) and The Starless Sea (2019) and someday hopefully I will write other books so I have more things to list in biographies.
  I grew up in Massachusetts and studied theatre and studio art at Smith College. I currently live with my husband Adam and the world’s cutest kitten in the middle of the woods in the Berkshires where I am writing and playing video games and trying to improve my cocktail mixing skills.
  I am a Cancer with a Leo moon and Taurus rising and yes I know what all of that means. I collect bloodmilk jewelry. I knit things as long as they don’t involve too much math. I paint. I get obsessed with artisan perfume oils and I drink a lot of tea.

  photo credit Adam Scott

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  .
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  Frequently asked questions are answered over here.
  There is a list of books I love here.
  Other places you can find me on the internet: Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram. Instagram is the main one at the moment as I disappear from Twitter for long stretches at a time and Tumblr is more of a Morgensternian mood board.
  There is a facebook page but sometimes I forget about it. Most of the time.
  I am represented by Richard Pine at InkWell Management.

  Possibly helpful information before we get to questions:
  If you want me to appear somewhere or do something or write something, please contact InkWell Management or Todd Doughty at Doubleday or the Penguin Random House Speakers Bureau.
  Film rights to THE NIGHT CIRCUS have already been optioned by Lionsgate. No, I do not know when (or if) the movie is coming out or if you can be in it. When (if) there is ever news I can share I will share it.
  My second novel, THE STARLESS SEA, will be published in the US, UK & Canada on November 5th, 2019. More info here. For foreign rights information please contact InkWell.
  There is also lots of information in this interview I did with Writer Unboxed (part I & II) and I am particularly fond of this hostile Booklist interview as well.
  How long have you been writing?
  I wrote little random things when I was in junior high and high school but never really thought of myself as a writer. I studied playwriting in college but never finished any plays. After college I thought about writing for good long while before I started actually putting pen to paper in my mid-twenties. (THE NIGHT CIRCUS was sold when I was 32.) I do not write every day, I tend to be a binge writer.
  I do not have an MFA or any other formal writing training. I love adverbs. I still do naughty things with commas.
  I mostly write in Scrivener, or in fountain pen on unlined paper.
  Did THE NIGHT CIRCUS really start as a National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) project?
  Yes it did indeed. The longer version of this answer has been chronicled several times (including this blog post about how I got an agent) but the short version is that NaNoWriMo is an online based challenge to write 50,000 words in 30 days. I tried for the first time in 2003 & failed but succeeded in 2004 and in 2005 I started a project that I got bored with and sent the characters to the circus and that circus was immediately much more interesting than anything else so I spent the next two years of NaNo writing exploring that imaginary circus. It went through a great many changes between that double NaNo draft and the finished version. (An example: that entire 100k worth of original circus stuff? Celia isn’t in it. Seriously.)
  I think NaNoWriMo is a brilliant idea and gives you two magical things: company and a deadline. Before NaNo I was the sort of person who would write a page and hate it so I’d stop, when really you need to keep going and write more pages and NaNo is a wonderful way to learn that.
  I am eternally grateful to Chris Baty for coming up with such an outlandish idea, he has forever changed the way I feel about the month of November and also he has very good taste in wine.
  How did you get a literary agent?
  I sent out query letters and sample pages and followed agency guidelines. I got several requests for the manuscript because my query letter made it sound like the book had a plot and many rejections because at that point it really had no plot whatsoever. Eventually I was fortunate enough to find a few agents who thought it had potential but needed a lot of work and after talking to them I reworked the manuscript (twice) and eventually signed with one of them. The longer version of the “how I got an agent” story is over here. My agent is Richard Pine at InkWell Management. I suspect he might be a wizard.
  Is there going to be a Night Circus movie?
  Possibly maybe someday. That is all I know. Really. The film rights have been optioned which means Lionsgate has the option to turn it into a film. People probably have meetings where they talk about things but no one tells me about them.
  Are there particular books that influenced THE NIGHT CIRCUS?
  The circus had a lot of influences, some of the stronger particular ones were Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke and The Prestige by Christopher Priest (as well as the film version of the same).
  The vignette format of the book was inspired by Einstein’s Dreams by Alan Lightman, one of my favorite books of all time.
  In a general flavor sense there’s a heavy dose of Shakespeare and Dickens with a sprinkling of Roald Dahl around the edges and an Edward Gorey aperitif.
  Do you have discussion questions about THE NIGHT CIRCUS for book clubs, etc?
  My publisher does, there’s a great list here. I’m not even sure how I’d answer some of them.
  Is there somewhere I can buy chocolate mice?
  Yes. Yes there is.
  When is your next book coming out? What’s it about?
  THE STARLESS SEA. November 5th, 2019. It’s about stories and storytelling and fate and time and video games. There is a lot of snow in it. And also bees.
  What happened to flax-golden tales? Will there be a book?
  I wrote flax-golden tales (ten sentence stories inspired by photographs taken by my friend Carey Farrell) from July 2009 to July 2014, they are all archived and can be read here. I started them for my birthday to make my blog look more like I was an actual writer. Five years and 261 stories later I decided it was time to stop.
  There may be a book someday, I think that would be nice. If and when there is news on that front I’ll announce it here.
  When is the tarot deck going to be published?
  Someday, hopefully, though today is not that day. The paintings for The Phantomwise Tarot can be seen over here. A very limited edition of the Major Arcana was published several years ago, once in awhile a copy turns up for resale somewhere on the internet.
  In the meantime I highly recommend the beautiful Wild Unknown Tarot, pictured at the top of this page. I am also very fond of Uusi’s Pagan Otherworlds Tarot.
  Do you have writing advice to share?
  I borrow my favorite writing advice from Neil Gaiman, which is “keep writing and finish things.” The finishing things is important. I also like to amend that statement with a Da Vinci quote, which is “art is never finished, only abandoned.”
  If you want in-depth, practical, smart writing & publishing advice complete with creative use of profanity, I highly recommend listening to my friend Chuck Wendig. Also do please check out his book Damn Fine Story.
  Can I send you books to be signed?
  No, but you can order books for me to sign including personalizing or birthday or wedding or other sorts of wishes from The Odyssey Bookshop. They will ship internationally. (Do please order far in advance for anything time sensitive as I will only be able to stop by to sign things every few weeks.)
  Can I send you other things?
  Non-perishable things can be sent care of InkWell Management. Please do not send perishable things, like cookies or ducklings.
  Can you do a Skype chat with my class/book club/etc?
  I would like to because I am fond of Skype but I just don’t have time or a truly reliable internet connection, so I have to decline these sorts of invitations across the board at the moment.
  Can you come to {insert city or town here}?
  I will be touring in autumn/winter of 2019/2020 when THE STARLESS SEA comes out. If you would like me to visit someplace for a speaking engagement please contact the Penguin Random House Speakers Bureau.

• Amazon -

  ERIN MORGENSTERN is the author of The Night Circus, a number-one national best seller that has been sold around the world and translated into thirty-seven languages. She has a degree in theater from Smith College and lives in Massachusetts.

  twitter & instagram: @erinmorgenstern
  http://erinmorgenstern.com
  http://www.facebook.com/erinmorgen

• Wikipedia -

  Erin Morgenstern
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  Erin Morgenstern

  Morgenstern at the 2011 Texas Book Festival
  Born
  July 8, 1978 (age 41)[1]
  Occupation
  Novelist
  Nationality
  American
  Education
  Bachelor of Arts
  Alma mater
  Smith College
  Genre
  Fantasy
  Notable works
  The Night Circus
  Website
  erinmorgenstern.com
  Erin Morgenstern (born July 8, 1978) is an American multimedia artist and the author of a successful fantasy novel, The Night Circus (2011). It was published in more than a dozen languages by 2013[2] and won the annual Locus Award for Best First Novel.

  Contents
  1
  Life
  2
  The Night Circus
  3
  The Starless Sea
  4
  References
  5
  External links
  Life[edit]
  Erin Morgenstern was raised in Marshfield, Massachusetts and studied theater and studio art at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, graduating in 2000.[3][4] In addition to writing, she paints, mostly in acrylics, including the Phantomwise tarot deck.[5][6] She signed with Inkwell Management in May 2010 after being rejected by thirty literary agents, and sold her debut novel to Doubleday in September 2010; The Night Circus was published in September 2011.[4][6][7] She has participated in National Novel Writing Month since 2003, and first wrote about what would become The Night Circus in November 2005.[6][7] Morgenstern has since moved to New York City.
  On October 13, 2006, Morgenstern married Peter Canisius, Jr. In 2011, the parties separated and ultimately divorced.
  The Night Circus[edit]
  Morgenstern's debut novel, The Night Circus, was published in September 2011. It is a phantasmagorical fairy tale of magic and romance set in an ahistorical late 19th century London. The book has drawn comparison with the Harry Potter series, as well as the works of Neil Gaiman, Ray Bradbury, Susanna Clarke, and Steven Millhauser;[6][8][9][10] it is not aimed at young adults, but has been recommended for teens.[6][11] The first printing runs to 175,000, and the rights have been sold in 30 countries; Summit Entertainment has contracted the film rights.[3][9] Jim Dale, who narrates the American edition Harry Potter audiobooks, also narrates the audiobook of The Night Circus.[11] Harvill Secker, the UK publisher for The Night Circus, contracted Failbetter Games to create an interactive browser-based puzzle game to accompany the book.[12][13]
  In an interview with the School Library Journal, Morgenstern describes the short, self-contained chapters as recapitulating the myriad tents of the circus, and the black and white with a splash of red motif as showing dangerous passion simmering just below the surface.[11]
  The Night Circus won an Alex Award from the American Library Association,[14] the 2012 Locus Award for Best First Novel,[15] and spent seven weeks on The New York Times Best Seller list.[16]
  The Starless Sea[edit]
  On November 8, 2018, it was announced that Doubleday would publish a new novel by Morgenstern titled The Starless Sea. Entertainment Weekly described The Starless Sea as a "sweeping new novel interweaving romantic and fantastical elements."[17] The book will be released November 5, 2019.

• Publishers Weekly - https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/columns-and-blogs/openbook/article/80625-erin-morgenstern-s-done-it-again.html

  QUOTED: "I have this sprawling world. I have the architecture, the history, but it takes time to find the narrative that is going to carry me through. I must have written the last third of the book five times."

  Erin Morgenstern's Next Big Novel
  With her second novel, Erin Morgenstern creates an imaginative world around a story of love and magic.
  By Louisa Ermelino | Jul 05, 2019

  Comments

  Photo: Allan Amato
  Erin Morgenstern
  I was very excited to hear about a new book from Erin Morgenstern. After all, who didn’t love The Night Circus? Fans have Night Circus tattoos! And now everyone’s patience has been rewarded. On November 5, Doubleday will publish Morgenstern’s second novel, The Starless Sea, a love story set in a magical underground land.
  The adventure begins with a graduate student in Vermont named Zachary discovering a mysterious book in his school’s library stacks that contains a story from his childhood. His search to understand how it all came about leads him to an ancient subterranean library, protected against the forces of destruction by acolytes who have sacrificed their eyes and their tongues. There are masked balls, twisting tunnels, secret clubs, pirates, lost cities, lovers, and “ships that sail upon a starless sea.”
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  The story of Morgenstern’s career begins with Richard Pine, her agent at Inkwell Management, finding the manuscript for The Night Circus in a blind submission. “I don’t usually read them, but this time I did,” he says. “I can’t remember the details, but I do remember realizing that this could be the book I was waiting for fate to send me.” Pine says he was “totally smitten” and pursued Morgenstern for “about a year.” And, he adds, “I would have been devastated if she hadn’t chosen me.”
  Pine sold Night Circus to Doubleday for what he describes as “a handsome advance.” Published in 2011, The Night Circus went on to sell three million copies worldwide and has been optioned for stage and film.
  “The success of Night Circus was completely unexpected,” Morgenstern says. “Everything that never happens happened.”
  Morgenstern started writing The Starless Sea in earnest around 2015. “My method is to first write it all wrong to write it right,” she says. “I think to myself, ‘This is terrible,’ and I go back and change it. I gave Richard 100 pages, and he said, ‘Keep writing!’ I rewrote those pages from scratch but kept the flavor and the main character of Zachary.”
  The contract for North American rights was signed in July 2015 in an exclusive submission to Doubleday. “Doubleday has been good to me,” Morgenstern says. “I love the whole team.”
  V-p and senior editor Jenny Jackson says that editor-in-chief Bill Thomas thought she and Morgenstern would click, and they did. “After I read those first 100 pages, I was desperate to read more,” Jackson adds. “Erin is one of those writers who live and breathe what they write.”

  Photos: Jennifer Witherell (l.), Michael Lionstar
  Richard Pine (l.), Jenny Jackson

  Jackson calls Morgenstern’s writing process “phenomenal,” adding, “I would give her feedback, and she would go off into a cave and come back with all these fabulous new ideas. Plot would change, places would change. Suddenly, you would be in a room with bees the size of dogs! I think we should publish her outtakes.”
  Jackson notes that editing took two years not because the book needed work but because “Erin would go off and furiously rewrite.” She adds, “Her books are so layered, like pouring a gallon into a shot glass. Every paragraph is embroidered.”
  No one, meanwhile, will talk money, but considering Morgenstern’s track record and the reception for Starless Sea, I can only imagine a number in the stratosphere.
  Pine goes back to his sharing those first 100 pages of Starless Sea with Thomas at the 2015 London Book Fair. “He told me he was schlepping pages on the double-decker bus on his way to the fair and was just mesmerized,” Pine says. He also recalls the lines at BEA for Night Circus, and that eight years later, at BookExpo 2019, fans hovered over The Starless Sea ARC. Some waited over an hour, clutching ragged copies of Night Circus for Morgenstern to sign, showing her their Night Circus–inspired tattoos.
  Jackson also comments on the pandemonium around the Starless Sea galley giveaway: “People were crying that they didn’t get one; they were crying that they did. It was amazing.”
  Morgenstern’s books, Pine says, “are the coming together of publishers, writers, and readers at their best—they are the big glorious dreams we get to remember.”
  Morgenstern notes that when she begins writing, she has “a space in my head,” adding, “I have this sprawling world. I have the architecture, the history, but it takes time to find the narrative that is going to carry me through. I must have written the last third of the book five times.”
  Moving to the Berkshires in 2016, with no cable or internet for two years, Morgenstern says, really let her focus on the book. “It took a while to get the pieces together. There’s actually a place in Starless Sea where a character is talking about Erin, saying that the person writing this book doesn’t know what she’s doing!”
  Doubleday Canada and Harvill Secker in the U.K. will publish The Starless Sea simultaneously on November 5. To date, it’s been sold in 16 territories. Morgenstern will do a multicity national tour, but as the book is an international publication, Canada and the U.K. will share in the promotional attention.
  Morgenstern—who says she’s an introvert but can do extrovert things (noting that her theater background helps)—is very excited about the novel’s release. “I had to shut out the idea that people were waiting for this book; there was so much expectation. It’s a relief that it’s here. Now I just have to remember to put on my shoes and leave my house!”

• Penguin - https://www.penguin.co.uk/articles/company/news/2018/november/erin-morgenstern-the-starless-sea-the-night-circus.html

  Erin Morgenstern returns with new book The Starless Sea
  The author of the international bestselling novel, The Night Circus returns in 2019 with a magical, timeless and wholly original love story set in a secret underground world.
  08 November 2018

  Harvill Secker (an imprint at VINTAGE) is excited to announce the acquisition of the long-awaited novel from Erin Morgenstern, The Starless Sea. Morgenstern’s previous novel, The Night Circus (published in 2011) sold over 3 million copies worldwide and was translated into an impressive 37 languages.
  In the UK, the book stormed into the bestseller list on publication, and was nominated for the Guardian First Book Award, the Orange Prize for Fiction and the Galaxy Book Awards. It also spent several months on the New York Times bestseller list. A feature film of The Night Circus is currently in development with Lionsgate, along with a stage play. The Starless Sea contains all the hallmarks of Morgenstern’s critically acclaimed first novel – magic, mystery and inimitable imagination – and brings them to life in a richly layered and entirely new story.

  The Night Circus
  Vintage Magic
  Erin Morgenstern
  'Playful and intensely imaginative, Erin Morgenstern has created the circus I have always longed for. This is a marvellous book' Audrey Niffenegger, author of The Time Traveler's Wife
  Find out more

  Speaking of the release, Liz Foley, Publishing Director of Harvill Secker, commented: "From the first page of this exhilarating and glorious book I was transported to the unique world which only Erin could have created. I could not let go of Zachary’s story until the very last, intensely moving, page and so many scenes and characters are vividly imprinted in my memory. Erin’s imaginative powers are unparalleled and this is a truly immersive, epic book about storytelling itself. After the wonder of The Night Circus, it’s incredible to have a novel that even exceeds that one in its flair, richness and ingenuity. Nothing else like it will be published next year."
  Erin Morgenstern studied theater and studio art at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, graduating in 2000. In addition to writing, she paints, collects jewellery made from skeleton-keys and loves cats. "When I started working on my new novel," says Erin, "I thought I was writing a book about books but as it turns out I was writing a book about stories. Stories and choices and change and also time and fate and video games."More information about Erin can be found on her website erinmorgenstern.com.

  Erin Morgenstern
  Erin Morgenstern is a writer and artist, who describes all her work as 'fairy tales in one way or another'. She lives in Boston, Massachusetts www.erinmorgenstern.com

• Bookriot - https://bookriot.com/2018/11/08/author-of-the-night-circus-coming-out-with-new-book-in-2019/

  Author of THE NIGHT CIRCUS Coming Out with New Book in 2019

  Leah Rachel von Essen
  11-08-18
  It’s fair to say that there’s a bookish cult around The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. It’s there for a reason—the lush, standalone fantasy entranced hearts across the bookish world, selling 3 million copies since it was first published in 2011. It has been translated into 37 languages and is in development in both film and stage adaptations. My mother first discovered it, and shared it with me shortly before I got to meet Morgenstern in June 2013, in conversation with Neil Gaiman on his tour for The Ocean at the End of the Lane. I got our copies signed and thanked her for writing a book that reminded me of the book I wanted to write someday.
  It was a magnificent book, and there was always a mild disappointment that there wasn’t a second. The book community is remarkably impatient (myself included), and even though seven years is a reasonable amount of time to write a book, it seems like it’s been forever since I first entered the Night Circus with Celia and Marco. I wondered more than once if we would get another taste of Morgenstern’s magic.
  So it’s big news that Erin Morgenstern is releasing a new book with Doubleday in November 2019: The Starless Sea.

  The novel will feature a grad student named Zachary Ezra Rawlins who discovers a strange book hidden in the library that has many interesting stories—including his own. In his search to discover the meaning behind the book, he follows clues to a masquerade party and eventually to a library far below the earth’s surface: a realm that has been fiercely protected but is now under threat.
  The official description of the novel continues: “Together with Mirabel, a fierce, pink-haired protector of the place, and Dorian, a handsome barefoot man with shifting alliances, Zachary travels the twisting tunnels, darkened stairwells, crowded ballrooms, and sweetly soaked shores of this magical world, discovering his purpose—in both the mysterious book and in his own life.”
  The Starless Sea will publish November 5, 2019. I’m already trying to get my preorder together.

• The Bookseller - https://www.thebookseller.com/news/night-circus-author-erin-morgenstern-magics-new-novel-2019-890601

  Night Circus author Erin Morgenstern magics up new novel for 2019
  Published November 8, 2018 by Katherine Cowdrey
  Share

  Erin Morgenstern, author of the international bestseller The Night Circus, is publishing a "magical, timeless and wholly original" love story in November next year with Harvill Secker.
  Set in a secret underground world, The Starless Sea is described as containing all the hallmarks of her 2011-published novel The Night Circus (Harvill Secker), such as magic, mystery, and inimitable imagination, and bringing them to life in a richly layered and entirely new story.

  Liz Foley, publishing director at Harvill Secker, acquired UK and Commonwealth rights (excluding Canada) from Richard Pine at InkWell Management. She called The Starless Sea "exhilarating and glorious", promising "nothing else like it will be published next year".
  Its predecessor, The Night Circus, sold 247,502 copies through Nielsen Bookscan for £1.6m and, according to Vintage, over 3 million copies worldwide. It was nominated for the Guardian First Book Award, the Orange Prize for Fiction and the Galaxy Book Awards and has been translated into 37 languages to date. It is currently in development with Lionsgate as both a feature film and stage play.
  In The Starless Sea, out 5th November 2019, Morgenstern tells the story of a Vermont-based graduate student called Zachary who discovers a strange book hidden in the library stacks. His curiosity is piqued when between its pages he finds a story from his own childhood, leading him to uncover a series of clues (a bee, a key, and a sword) and, via a masquerade party in New York, a doorway to a subterranean library, hidden far below the surface of the earth.
  A place of "lost cities and seas, lovers who pass notes under doors and across time, and of stories whispered by the dead", soon Zachary learns of those who have sacrificed much to protect this realm - relinquishing their sight and their tongues to preserve this archive - and also those who are intent on its destruction.
  The blurb continues: "Together with Mirabel, a fierce, pink-haired protector of the place, and Dorian, a handsome barefoot man with shifting alliances, Zachary travels the twisting tunnels, darkened stairwells, crowded ballrooms, and sweetly-soaked shores of this magical world, discovering his purpose - in both the mysterious book and in his own life."
  Morgenstern commented: "When I started working on my new novel, I thought I was writing a book about books but as it turns out I was writing a book about stories. Stories and choices and change and also time and fate and video games. It took quite a while to get it all to fit in a single book, even down to the bees."
  Foley said: "I could not let go of Zachary’s story until the very last, intensely moving, page and so many scenes and characters are vividly imprinted in my memory. Erin’s imaginative powers are unparalleled and this is a truly immersive, epic book about storytelling itself. After the wonder of The Night Circus, it’s incredible to have a novel that even exceeds that one in its flair, richness and ingenuity."
  Doubleday, an imprint of Penguin Random House US, and Doubleday Canada, an imprint of Penguin Random House Canada, will simultaneously publish The Starless Sea on 5th November 2019.

QUOTED: "It is exquisitely pleasurable to watch the gears of this epic fantasy turn."
"an ambitious and bewitching gem of a book with mystery and passion inscribed on every page."

Morgenstern, Erin THE STARLESS SEA Doubleday (Adult Fiction) $28.96 11, 5 ISBN: 978-0-385-54121-3
A withdrawn graduate student embarks on an epic quest to restore balance to the world in this long-anticipated follow-up to The Night Circus (2011).Zachary Ezra Rawlins is a typical millennial introvert; he likes video games, escapist reading, and drinking sidecars. But when he recognizes himself in the pages of a mysterious book from the university library, he's unnerved--and determined to uncover the truth. What begins as a journey for answers turns into something much bigger, and Zachary must decide whether to trust the handsome stranger he meets at a highflying literary fundraiser in New York or to retreat back to his thesis and forget the whole affair. In a high-wire feat of metatextual derring-do, Morgenstern weaves Zachary's adventure into a stunning array of linked fables, myths, and origin stories. There are pirates and weary travelers, painters who can see the future, lovers torn asunder, a menacing Owl King, and safe harbors for all the stories of the world, far below the Earth on the golden shores of a Starless Sea. Clocking in at more than 500 pages, the novel requires patience as Morgenstern puts all the pieces in place, but it is exquisitely pleasurable to watch the gears of this epic fantasy turn once they're set in motion. As in The Night Circus, Morgenstern is at her best when she imagines worlds and rooms and parties in vivid detail, right down to the ballroom stairs "festooned with lanterns and garlands of paper dipped in gold" or a cloak carved from ice with "ships and sailors and sea monsters...lost in the drifting snow." This novel is a love letter to readers as much as an invitation: Come and see how much magic is left in the world. Fans of Neil Gaiman and V.E. Schwab, Kelly Link and Susanna Clarke will want to heed the call.
An ambitious and bewitching gem of a book with mystery and passion inscribed on every page.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2019 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Morgenstern, Erin: THE STARLESS SEA." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Aug. 2019. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A596269765/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=efeeeefb. Accessed 9 Sept. 2019.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A596269765

QUOTED: "Morgenstern's new fantasy epic is a puzzlebox of a book, full of meta-narratives and small folkloric tales that will delight readers."

* The Starless Sea. By Erin Morgenstern. Nov. 2019. 512p. Doubleday, $28.95 (9780385541213).
Morgensterns new fantasy epic is a puzzlebox of a book, full of meta-narratives and small folkloric tales that will delight readers. Zachary is a grad student who stumbles on a mysterious book in his library. Pulling on the thread of its origins, he discovers the symbols of the bee, the book, and the sword, that in turn lead him to a secret society that protects a magical, subterranean library. Chased by shadowy people determined to close off the library from our world, Zachary and new friends Dorian and Mirabel eventually reach the library itself, which is neglected--and in need of saving. Morgenstern (The Night Circus, 2011) uses poetic, honey-like prose to tell a story that plays with the very concept of what we expect and want from our stories; she also asks questions about accessibility, and what it truly means to guard something as precious as the library. She trusts her readers to follow along and speculate, wonder, and make leaps themselves as she dives into tales of pirates, book burnings, and men lost in time, giving the book a mythic quality that will stick with readers long after they put it down. --Leah von Essen

HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: The massive legion of readers who loved Morgenstern's debut will be clamoring to recapture the magic of that reading experience.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2019 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Source Citation
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
von Essen, Leah. "The Starless Sea." Booklist, 1 Aug. 2019, p. 48. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A598305272/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=514c7e8f. Accessed 9 Sept. 2019.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A598305272

QUOTED: "This love letter to bibliophiles is dreamlike and uncanny, grounded in deeply felt emotion, and absolutely thrilling."

* The Starless Sea
Erin Morgenstern. Doubleday, $28.95 (512p) ISBN 978-0-385-54121-3
Built from fables, myths, and fairy tales, Morgenstern's long-awaited second fantastical novel (following The Night Circus) delves into a vast subterranean library, the Harbor on the Starless Sea, a giant, maze-like, subterranean library where all languages are comprehensible to everyone, and time moves differently. Its wonders include moving statues, edible stories, and a sea made of honey. Narrative-obsessed grad student Zachary Rawlins happens upon an old, authorless collection in the campus library. Among the tales of an improbable land of books and their devotees is an anecdote from Zachary's own childhood, a time when he found a magical door but chose to walk away, disbelieving. Desperate to understand and longing for a second chance at adventure, Zachary investigates and finds a literary party thrown by a secret society. He goes through a painted door in Central Park and into the Harbor itself, now long past its heyday and mostly deserted. Aboveground, the secret society is trying to close as many doors as possible, hoping to keep the Starless Sea hidden. Aided by othetworldly Mirabel, whose motives and history are obscure, and alluring Dorian, a former society member who opposes the closing of the doors, Zachary works to understand how the Harbor fell into disrepair and what he can do to protect it. He also learns what it means to be not just a reader but a part of the story, and what happens after that story ends. This love letter to bibliophiles is dreamlike and uncanny, grounded in deeply felt emotion, and absolutely thrilling. Agent: Richard Pine, InkWell Management. (Nov.)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2019 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"The Starless Sea." Publishers Weekly, 15 July 2019, p. 48. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A593965721/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=3d1ab6c9. Accessed 9 Sept. 2019.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A593965721

Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition) "Morgenstern, Erin: THE STARLESS SEA." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Aug. 2019. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A596269765/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=efeeeefb. Accessed 9 Sept. 2019. Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition) von Essen, Leah. "The Starless Sea." Booklist, 1 Aug. 2019, p. 48. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A598305272/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=514c7e8f. Accessed 9 Sept. 2019. Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition) "The Starless Sea." Publishers Weekly, 15 July 2019, p. 48. Gale General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A593965721/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=3d1ab6c9. Accessed 9 Sept. 2019.

• Righter of Words
  https://righterofwords.com/2019/06/29/book-review-the-starless-sea-arc/
  Word count: 597

  QUOTED: "The Starless Sea is fascinating. ... A marvelously strange plot that weaves through candlelit, honey-scented realms, and a tale penned by an author who clearly understands and adores the power of words makes this novel something special."

  Book Review | The Starless Sea (ARC)
  On June 29, 2019 By Jenny A

  Although I haven’t read The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (yet), I couldn’t resist reading an advance copy of her new novel, The Starless Sea. Since this version is just a proof and not the final version, I won’t quote directly and will keep my comments general.
  When Zachary Ezra Rawlins wanders through the fiction section of his university’s library, he finds an old mis-shelved book. He starts reading only to find an account of a weird occurrence from his own childhood. Confused, since this book was clearly written decades before he was born, Zachary investigates. His search takes him to an unusual place: the Starless Sea, a massive, magical, sort-of library hidden beneath the world. He meets people who seek to protect the stories there and those who seem bent on the place’s destruction. With allies Mirabel and Dorian, Zachary must unravel the secrets of the Sea and discover his own role in its fate.
  The writing in this novel is, overall, lovely. Morgenstern uses a lot of comma splices, which as an aspiring editor I feel the need to mention. However, I forgave her because I was so captivated by her story. Zachary’s experience is punctuated by other tales which are almost standalone short stories—though as the narrative progresses, they take on deeper significance. This is an impressive, clever method of establishing the world as well as advancing the plot, and Morgenstern does it brilliantly.
  The characters are excellent. Zachary is a relatable protagonist; he’s often unsure of himself, but I found him endearing and well-rounded. Mirabel is a fun foil for him—witty and confident and mysterious. But Dorian was probably my favorite, with a complicated past and a moving development. I enjoyed his involvement in the plot, though I wish we could have gotten more of his backstory. Or maybe I just wanted more Dorian in general. Yeah, that’s probably it.
  Other characters like Eleanor, Simon, the Keeper, and Kat are also fantastic. Each is distinct and feels like a fully realized person. I really like them all, and was glad to accompany them on this journey.
  And this journey really is meant for book lovers. Without a deep appreciation for stories and curling up with a novel in a library, it would be hard to connect with this book. Most of the magic of the Starless Sea is in the books that dwell in its harbors, and literary references pepper the pages of this novel. Even though the end verges on bizarre, magical-realism-ish, you are left feeling as if you’ve emerged from a vivid daydream when you turn the last page.
  In the end, The Starless Sea is fascinating. Wonderful characters I had many emotions about, a romance I was so invested in, a marvelously strange plot that weaves through candlelit, honey-scented realms, and a tale penned by an author who clearly understands and adores the power of words makes this novel something special. It might not be for everyone, but it worked pretty well for me. I want to read it again to take it all in. And I can’t wait to read The Night Circus!
  Overall rating: 8.8/10

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