Product Description

U.S. National Book Award 2006 nominee for Young People's Literature!

2007 Saskatchewan Young Readers' Choice Willow Awards nominee

Manitoba Young Readers' Choice Award shortlist 2008

Canadian Children's Book Centre Our Choice Starred Selection, 2007

Sunburst Award for Canadian Literature of the Fantastic shortlist

Booklist's Top 10 Youth Romances, 2007

White Pine nominee, 2008

I will tell you . . . a story of magic and love, of daring and death, and one to comfort your heart. It will be the truest story I have ever told. Now listen, and tell me if it is not so."

Keturah Reeve is a beautiful young woman of sixteen who lives with her grandmother in a cottage near the forest owned by Lord Temsland. Keturah is renowned in the village for her captivating storytelling, and this beautifully woven novel is a response to a request from Keturah's eager audience for yet another of her fascinating tales. She tells of her experience of being lost in the forest, her eventual meeting with a dark figure on horseback who is Lord Death and her bargaining with him for her life-and for the lives of the villagers who are threatened by an onset of the plague.

With its richly textured medieval setting, Keturah's story exposes the tensions and desires of the villagers, the dangers that loom in their future and how they place Keturah's life in jeopardy. Keturah's escalating bargains with Lord Death allow her to protect her friends and reveal to them their true talents and destinies. But even as she negotiates with Death, she becomes more isolated from the people she is seeking to protect and seems less and less likely to achieve the dreams of her own heart.

The startling resolution of the novel confirms Martine Leavitt's reputation as a treasure of a writer, a storyteller who can weave magnificent spells. Leavitt confronts readers with issues and revelations that, while they occur in a setting far from their own experience, bear the intimacy of next door.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #81554 in Books
• Published on: 2006-11
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 216 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781932425291
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From School Library Journal
Starred Review. Grade 7 Up–At 16, Keturah is a poor peasant girl who constantly ponders her future. She has always been different from the other girls of the village and has unique but unrealized gifts. She has been raised by warm and loving grandparents, experiencing firsthand what a truly happy marriage is all about. The teen is committed to finding a suitable husband so she, too, can be happy but has not yet been successful. All this changes for her the day she follows the legendary hart deep into the forest and becomes lost. After three days of wandering aimlessly, she knows that she is about to die. Keturah is surprised to discover that Death is a strong, handsome lord to whom she immediately feels connected. Despite the fact that she is afraid, she challenges Lord Death, which is something he is not used to. She uses her storytelling skills to make him grant her a reprieve for one day. She spins a story of a love so pure that even Death cannot destroy it. He allows her to live another day on the condition that she come to him with an ending to the story and her true love. Keturah continues to delay the inevitable but in doing so learns much about herself and what she is truly capable of achieving. Along the way she also discovers that her true love was there beside her all along. This is a dark, but uplifting story combining elements of fantasy as well as romance. It has a gripping plot, strong characters, and a surprise ending that will intrigue readers.–Donna Rosenblum, Nassau Boces School Library System, NY
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
*Starred Review* The romance is intense, the writing is startling, and the story is spellbinding--and it is as difficult to turn away from as the tales beautiful Keturah tells to the people of her village, Tide-by-Rood. But one day Keturah must use her storytelling skills with quite a different audience. Lost and hungry after following a stately hart through the forest, Keturah encounters Lord Death, who is ready to take her. Like Scheherazade, Keturah spins a story that she leaves unfinished and extracts from Lord Death a promise that if she finds her true love in a day, she can go free. But Lord Death is falling in love with her, and as the villagers begin to sense her alliance with this horrifying figure, her life twists and turns on itself. This novel gets so many things just right. Leavitt brings together a large cast of characters, but she personalizes them and weaves their stories into Keturah's, making it richer, denser, and more intricate. The plotting moves in and out of the everyday and the supernatural, but it's so finely tuned that the worlds seem one. Readers will be carried away on the wind of Leavitt's words, and few will be able to guess how she finally ends her story. Ilene Cooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

"A blend of folktale, myth and romance, the book's thought-provoking conclusion is perfect for adolescent pondering."
-- The Toronto Star

"There's a tradition of fleshing out bare-bones fairy tales into novels, spinning schematic Snow Whites and Cinderellas into living girls with freckles and foibles. "Keturah and Lord Death" evokes that tradition. . . Readers who think they know exactly where the story is headed will find themselves pleasantly surprised. Not that Leavitt frustrates all expectations -- much of what clearly has to happen does happen. But she takes what looks on the surface like a rather shallow story and plunges it, from time to time, into the depths that come only with pain."
-- The New York Times

"Older readers will be entranced by this dark romance."
-- Instructor Magazine (US)

"The passionate relationship of Keturah and Lord Death, blossoming out of an early fascination and strong friendship, is both realistic and otherworldly. Leavitt integrates the sweeping romance with a timeless story of a headstrong girl who is certain that, given enough time, she can create a perfect world."
-- Bulletin Of The Center For Children's Books

"Stippled with light and shadow and crowned with an ending that will leave teens breathless, this resonant fantasy centers on Keturah's attempts to evade destiny."
-- Booklist

"The romance is intense, the writing is startling, and the story is spellbinding, as difficult to turn away from as the tales beautiful Keturah tells the villagers."
-- Booklist, from the 2006 Editor's Choice List write-up

"Leavitt integrates the sweeping romance with a timeless story of a headstrong girl who is certain that, given enough time, she can create a perfect world. . . Lord Death, mysterious and gorgeous, and Keturah, brilliant and beautiful, will be irresistible to romance fans as well as those who like a bit of passion woven into their fantasy."
-- Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

"Leavitt's novel is an unusual blend of folktale, myth, and romance, and its unexpected conclusion is thought-provoking. And while the prose is sometimes overly ponderous ('and my heart smote me'), more often it is lucid and arresting."
-- Horn Book

"The tension in this novel is masterfully sustained, and the theme is arresting: not the usual 'choose life,' but rather, welcome death into your everyday awareness, because it's inseparable from life. The unconventional ending may disappoint some, but there's no denying that it's an admirably bold stroke."
-- Quill and Quire

Customer Reviews

Intriguing Title, Wonderful Story
Keturah and Lord Death - - The title is intriguing enough. I picked up this book to read after my mom returned from the library with a bunch of library books that looked interesting to her. I read it, loved it, and entirely despised the ending. But it was such a wonderfully wrought work that I just had to learn to enjoy the ending. So, I read it about five times in the next few days. I finally learned to love it.
In this story, Keturah, the protagonist, follows a hart into the woods. She meets Lord Death after three days of being lost, and she pleads for her life. After telling Lord Death a story, without the ending, Keturah is granted one day to find true love. Turning into a Scheherezade of sorts, she leads you through an amazing story that makes you feel like it really happened, like you are actually there. It is amazing.
From the cover, I was expecting it to be a "kissing book" and that kinda made me not want to read it. I'm not a romance freak. But, surprisingly(*coughcoughluckilycough*) it had minimal kissing.
I really enjoyed this book, and think it deserves SIX stars (or more). It is definitely worth your time.
-The Daughter of Lisa Havens (who actually happens to be a very intelligent, ingenious musician with the most humble of attitudes... :D)
--Thank you.

Lord Death Loves
Keturah and Lord Death is original, insightful and beautifully written. Leavitt has an unique perspective throughout the book that leads to a surprising and bittersweet ending. You'll remember Keturah for her storytelling ability, but you'll remember Lord Death for his unashamed, unconditional and tender love. Touching.

Because I Could Not Stop For Death, He Kindly Stopped For Me
Sixteen year old Keturah becomes lost after following a legendary hart (male deer) into the woods. After three days, she meets Death, who appears as a handsome and lordly young man. Keturah is a girl who has known Death all her life, as he has already taken her father, mother and grandfather from her. Like Shahrazad of One Thousand and One Nights, she spins a tale for Death that grants a reprieve for one day, in which time she has to find her True Love and complete her story. Unfortunately for her, she lives in a small and poor town that suffers from a lack of good candidates. Death has also let slip that the plague is coming, and so Keturah's secondary mission is to save her beloved village from this devastating disease. As Keturah seeks to complete her quest, she is helped by her two best friends, Beatrice and Gretta, who are in love with Choirmaster and Tailor, respectively. Beatrice and Gretta provide some humor, as they both insist that Keturah's quest for True Love must include considering Choirmaster and Tailor as candidates, protesting that they themselves have no interest in these men due to some small fault. As Gretta says about Tailor, how could she ever love a man who wears orange hose? Keturah manages to continue to ward off her own end one day at a time by spinning more stories for Death. Her quest isn't easy, but by the book's conclusion she has discovered her True Love in an unlikely place.

This is a quiet story, with no big action scenes or stunning revelations (Keturah's True Love is not a huge surprise, but it is nicely done). Reading this book, I didn't quite know what to make of it. For a book where Death is the main character, and there are so many last-minute reprieves from death for secondary characters, the book ends quite happily for all involved (not that I'm complaining, as I don't like tragic endings). Although I enjoyed the book and thought it had an interesting premise, it felt a bit hollow. I think that if I was still in middle school I would love this book and turn a blind eye to the lack of substance, as it is a rather sweet tale and can be charming in places (especially during Keturah and Lord Death's interactions). 3 1/2 stars