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Palaces of the Crow
- Author
- Ray Nayler
- Narrator
- Eunice Wong
- Publisher
- Orion
- Publish Date
- 21 May 2026
- Run Time
- 9 hours 2 minutes
- Format
- Audiobook
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What to expect
'constantly surprising, moving and thought-provoking' GUARDIAN
'a must-read author' SFF WORLD
'perhaps the only writer today cooking up Le Guin's special sauce of liberation frustration and revolutionary blues' LOCUS
June 1941, Eastern Europe. As the German blitzkrieg tears across a divided continent, four young lives are thrown into chaos: Neriya, a young Jewish girl who dreams of becoming a scientist; Czesław, an underage Polish deserter fleeing the Red Army; Kezia, a Roma horse trader whose family is on the run from Soviet collectivisation; and a nameless,, abandoned boy who cannot speak.
Driven deep into the Lithuanian woods, they form an unbreakable bond with one another and with a flock of crows whose uncanny intelligence hints at a secret older and stranger than they could ever have imagined.
Critics Review
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This is an extraordinary science fiction novel that deftly deals with the nature of consciousness
SFX MAGAZINE
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[A] constantly surprising, moving and thought-provoking novel.
GUARDIAN
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A brilliant . . . blend of history and fantasy . . . Nayler's tale is packed with human brutality and the nobility of animals and their complex minds, never descending into sentimentality . . . [an] impressive novel
Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
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An impassioned paean to togetherness even in the midst of the chaotic isolation of war and to the power of storytelling to keep memory and hope alive
Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
See more reviews See fewer reviews
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Summing up then, despite its different setting, Palaces of the Crow is yet another affecting and effective novel from Ray. It is rather emotional, perhaps his most affecting story to date. Like before, with Ray's previous books, Palaces of the Crow made me sad, it made me angry, and yet made me think. All of this together means that Palaces of the Crow is another book by Ray that hits the ball out of the park for me. Still a must-read author.
SFF WORLD
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A story skilfully sown with dramatic surprises . . . [Palaces of the Crow] presents an extraordinary alien intelligence that happens to make its home here on Earth
Sam Sacks, Wall Street Journal
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It shouldn't surprise anyone that the crows come out looking better than their human counterparts in Nayler's latest work of speculative fiction
Colin Dwyer, NPR
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Over the last four years, Ray Nayler has become one of the most consistently fascinating science fiction writers working today
Esquire, Most Anticipated Books of 2026
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A searing epic about the horrifying costs of war and the terrifying process of sanitising the past to protect the guilty and the complicit; it wraps readers in its intensity from the first page. Highly recommended
Library Journal (starred review)
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Ray Nayler's Palaces of the Crow is an evocative and deeply human portrait of survival and awe along the Eastern European front of WWII
Laura Hubbard, Bookpage (starred review)
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Palaces of the Crow is an inventive, beautifully written work that I cannot recommend highly enough. It is historical fiction - the story is set in Lithuania during WWII with later excursions to 1971 - but it is also so much more: a novel of ideas and speculation; of inspired imagination and insight; of beautifully presented and utterly moving characterisation; and unexpected narrative twists.
HISTORICAL NOVEL REVIEW
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Details
- Author
- Ray Nayler
- Narrator
- Eunice Wong
- Duration
- 9 hours 2 minutes
- Release Date
- 21 May 2026
- ISBN
- 9781399637633
- Format
- Audiobook
- Publisher
- Orion
- Genre
- Speculative fiction, Historical fiction, Second World War fiction, Narrative theme: displacement, exile, migration
Synopsis
'an extraordinary science fiction novel' SFX MAGAZINE'constantly surprising, moving and thought-provoking' GUARDIAN'a must-read author' SFF WORLD'perhaps the only writer today cooking up Le Guin's special sauce of liberation frustration and revolutionary blues' LOCUSJune 1941, Eastern Europe. As the German blitzkrieg tears across a divided continent, four young lives are thrown into chaos: Neriya, a young Jewish girl who dreams of becoming a scientist; Czesław, an underage Polish deserter fleeing the Red Army; Kezia, a Roma horse trader whose family is on the run from Soviet collectivisation; and a nameless,, abandoned boy who cannot speak.Driven deep into the Lithuanian woods, they form an unbreakable bond with one another and with a flock of crows whose uncanny intelligence hints at a secret older and stranger than they could ever have imagined.
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