March 8, 2014
Raven Son:
Novel by Nicholas Kotar now Available for Sale
Reader
Nicholas Kotar is a seminarian in his final year at Holy Trinity
Seminary in Jordanville, NY, and taught for seven years at St. John
of San Francisco Orthodox Academy in San Francisco, CA. His first
full novel and most recent work,
Raven Son, is a work of
fantasy based on traditional Russian fairy tales, and went on sale
on February 17.
In an
interview
with the website Book Country, Nicholas explained how the idea for
the novel came about:
"I was on my way to Cairo for a month-long trek through Egypt,
Sinai, and Israel. I had a thirteen-hour layover in the Amsterdam
airport, and for some reason I thought it would be smart to stay
awake the whole time. So I drank lots of coffee, opened a notebook,
and one of the Syrin ‒ paradise birds whose song has been known to
drive people mad ‒ started singing to me… I wrote the first scene
without lifting my pen from the page. Later, when I got back from
the trip, I thought it would be interesting to write down my
experiences in the form of a fairy tale. But by page fifty, the
story had run away from me. It went wherever it wanted to go, and I
had to follow it, trying not to lose it. The next few years were
incredibly eventful… Through it all,
Raven Son kept writing itself, while I struggled to
follow. It was exhilarating.
A
review of the novel by Sophia Moshura reads, in part:
"Through the high art of storytelling, the author in an involving
and acutely personal manner leads us to believe that regardless of
our individual missteps, we can always draw strength from our faith
in order to become the people we were created to be. ‘Whatever
happens, do not lose hope. There is always hope.’ Entwined with
motives from ancient Russian fairy tales and legends, the novel is
not simply a fantasy book filled with striking descriptions of
Nature, raging battles and insuperable foes, it strikes the deepest
chords of our hearts, sweeping the reader through Voran’s victories
and defeats, and gently guiding us to analyze our own life path and
choices."
More information on the novel, author, reviews, and more is
available on the novel’s website,
www.raven-son.com,
and the novel can be purchased on softcover
here.
Media Office of the Eastern American
Diocese
