The haunting final chapter of the modern classic Vita Nostra trilogy. The Dyachenkos\u2019 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.<\/b><\/p>\n
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 \u201cworld without fear,\u201d are unable to master the curriculum. Whether it\u2019s the magic or the natural order of things, what they need to learn and become\u2014Speech\u2014is the basis of the material world.<\/p>\n
And if she can\u2019t teach it, Sasha knows that matter will soon cease to exist.<\/p>\n
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 learn\u2014and understand\u2014at any cost.<\/p>\n
But she knows how difficult the path is, even more so from the other side of the teacher\u2019s desk. Forced to act ever more ruthlessly, Sasha also notices the faster the world around the Institute changes. It is a vicious circle.<\/p>\n
And one she must break.<\/p>\n
To do so, she will have to shape reality again, one in which communication doesn\u2019t break down and Speech once again needs to evolve and grow and flourish.<\/p>\n
Sasha has already given up so much in pursuit of this dream\u2014often her nightmare\u2014and she might be asked to make one more sacrifice so that the world and Speech might live on.<\/p>\n