The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar. Tordotcom, 2025. 9781250341082. 134p. (The main novella ends on page 99, and the rest of the book contains the short story “John Hollowback and the Witch” (a preview of an upcoming collection) plus a few pages of acknowledgements.)
I’m such a huge fan of the book El-Mohtar co-wrote with Max Gladstone, This Is How You Lose The Time War, that I don’t think I’ll ever pass up the chance to read her fiction.
This novella involves a family that tends to magical Willow trees which grow along a river that flows from Faerie to our world. The family’s two daughters love singing to the trees and each other. One of them has a lover from Faerie who wants to offer a fair trade for her songs. But she also has a suitor from our world whose manners and intentions are far from lovely.
There are illustrations by Kathleen Neeley throughout, and the story went places that I didn’t expect.
This is up there with Nicola Griffith’s Spear and Premee Mohamed’s The Annual Migration of Clouds as one of my favorite novellas.