Leigh Bardugo — Ninth House

Today's guest is the bestselling writer Leigh Bardugo, whose works of boldly imagined and intricately plotted fantasy like Shadow and Bone, Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom have made her one of the superstars of YA fiction — and now she's expanding her territory in her new novel for adults with Ninth House. In Bardugo's Grishaverse novels the author has rewritten the templates for 21st-century fantasy, building worlds inspired by Tsarist Russia and the 17th-century Dutch Republic, and weaving quite modern, witty stories of espionage and crime into tales of sorcery and myth. To the delight of her fans, Netflix has announced that a new series based on Shadow and Bone and Six of Crows is about to begin filming. But the author has fresh wonders in store: Ninth House retains Bardugo's gift for fantasy and magic but departs from YA and sojourns into a version of our world. It's a darkly conceived world of Ivy League secrets, power, privilege, and yes, magic. Bardugo joins B&N's Miwa Messer by phone to talk about mixing fantasy with real-world issues in Ninth House.