From acclaimed adult novelist, Eli Brown (Cinnamon & Gunpowder) comes ODDITY, a ferocously inventive middle-grade fantasy debut.

ODDITY
by Eli Brown
Candlewick, Spring 2021

The first of a duology, ODDITY unfolds in an alternate 19th century in which the Louisana Purchase never came to pass and France and the United States are on the brink of war. It tells the tale of Clover Elkin, a surgeon’s daughter, on the run from her father’s killers and possessing a mysterious oddity, one of a collection of seemingly ordinary objects with limitless powers that have the potential to change the fates of the two nations. With gorgeous prose, soul-squeezing villains, and ingenious world building, ODDITY is a historical fantasy that feels entirely of-the-moment, placing a precocious and determined girl center-stage in a narrative that tackles grief, war, and human nature with as much care as it gives to the complexities of friendship and self-discovery. Think of Patrick Ness writing True Grit. Think of The Golden Compass and The Girl Who Drank the Moon. Think of just closing your door and reading.

Eli Brown is a Yaddo fellow with an MFA in creative writing from Mills College. His most recent novel, Cinnamon & Gunpowder (FSG, 2013), was a finalist for the California Book Prize, a San Francisco Public Library One-City One-Book selection, and an NPR Book Review Staff Pick.