School of Shards

The haunting final chapter of the modern classic Vita Nostra trilogy. The Dyachenkos magical dark academia novel brings the story of Sasha to a revelatory climax as she learns to take control of her powers and reshape the world...or destroy it forever. Beautifully translated from Russian by Julia Meitov Hersey. The Institute of Special Technologies teaches students just one thing: the magic that allows them to become parts of speech, and in doing so, transforming into a specific piece of grammar (a verb, or an adjective, or an article) so they will be able to shape the world around them. As the new provost, though, Sasha is facing an enormous problem: the students in the world she just created, her world without fear, are unable to master the curriculum. Whether its the magic or the natural order of things, what they need to learn and becomeSpeechis the basis of the material world. And if she cant teach it, Sasha knows that matter will soon cease to exist. To protect the world, Sasha must collect fragments of her former reality. Only three people carry these fragments within themselves: her younger brother, Valya, and the Grigoriev twins, Arthur and Pashka, the sons of her former lover, Yaroslav Grigoriev. Sasha must lure these three to the Institute and make them learnand understandat any cost. But she knows how difficult the path is, even more so from the other side of the teachers desk. Forced to act ever more ruthlessly, Sasha also notices the faster the world around the Institute changes. It is a vicious circle. And one she must break. To do so, she will have to shape reality again, one in which communication doesnt break down and Speech once again needs to evolve and grow and flourish. Sasha has already given up so much in pursuit of this dreamoften her nightmareand she might be asked to make one more sacrifice so that the world and Speech might live on.