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Reviewers of "A Discovery of Witches" by Deborah Harkness, have already described her novel as part Harry Potter and part Twilight, as well as part Charlaine Harris, Dan Brown, and Diana Gabaldon. It must be added that it also part Arturo Perez-Reverte and part Charles Darwin. Not merely a titillating supernatural romance, "A Discovery of Witches" explores the existence of vampires, daemons and witches, theorizing the roles that genetics and species extinction might play in their existence. The novel also, a la Gregory Maguire, takes on the pervasiveness of racial prejudices and segregation around marginalized “peoples”. Harkness blends historical fact and detail – the story moves both all over the world and back and forth through time - with timeless questions of origin and evolution, what it means to love, what constitutes the boundaries of family and what it signifies to understand your own identity. Harkness successfully preserves the integrity of the tensions inherent in these questions while telling a “Team Edward” kind of love story.  

Review by Holly Nickel

A Discovery of Witches (Paperback)

By Deborah Harkness

$16.00

ISBN-13: 9780143119685
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Penguin (Non-Classics), 12/2011

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