The House with Chicken Legs

Sophie Anderson's spellbinding fantasy of Marinka, a lonely girl whose living home walks the world on giant chicken legs and whose grandmother is a Yaga — a guardian who welcomes the recently dead, celebrates their lives and guides them through a Gate to the stars. Drawing on the Baba Yaga tales of Eastern European folklore, the books are strange, beautiful and deeply moving, handling grief and death with warmth and wonder rather than dread. Anderson's acclaimed, bestselling debut launched Marinka's story; the sequel returns to her world when the Gate breaks apart and the house tears itself free. A modern fairy tale about learning to say goodbye, the ache to belong, and the difference between the life you're given and the life you choose.

A lyrical Slavic-folklore fantasy about a living house on chicken legs, a Baba Yaga grandmother, and a girl learning to say goodbye.

Primary themes

• Belonging
• Courage
• Death and mortality
• Grief
• Intergenerational bond

Tone palette

• Bittersweet
• Whimsical
• Warm
• Thought provoking