Journalist and ex-poet Maggie Black has inherited the estate of Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Davis Cooper, with whom she corresponded for years, but never met. Maggie is a cosmopolitan woman of the West Coast and Europe, and a child of the Appalachian mountains; she has no interest in the desert. She has an ex-husband she still loves in L.A. And Davis Cooper drowned in the Arizona desert, the victim of a mysterious murder. Maggie has many reasons to stay away. Yet she moves to Cooper's desert home, seeking to unravel the secrets of Cooper and his late lover, the mad painter Anna Naverra. But these, Maggie will discover, are not the desert's only mysteries. Ancient powers are stirring--enigmatic and dangerous spirits that would use humans for their own purposes.

Terri Windling is the most important and influential fantasy editor of the 1980s and 1990s: Her many accomplishments include editing (and often discovering) a pantheon of fantasy gods--Steven Brust, Emma Bull, Charles de Lint, Jane Yolen, and many more. She edits, with Ellen Datlow, the indispensible annual Year's Best Fantasy and Horror and the acclaimed revisionist fairy-tale anthology series that began with Snow White, Blood Red. She has won the World Fantasy Award five times. So it's not too surprising that her first novel, The Wood Wife, is well written, fascinating, insightful, and the winner of the 1997 Mythopoeic Award for Best Novel. --Cynthia Ward


From Publishers Weekly
Winner of five World Fantasy Awards for her editing, Windling (coeditor with Ellen Datlow of the annual Year's Best Fantasy & Horror anthologies) now shows off her writing skills with this strong first novel, a fantasy. When writer Maggie Black learns that her friend and mentor, poet Davis Cooper, has died and left her his house in the arid hills outside Tucson, Ariz., she travels there intending to write his biography and to investigate the mysterious circumstances of his death. Every detail she uncovers about Cooper's past, however, only seems to raise more questions. When Maggie comes home one evening to find that the house has been ransacked, it becomes clear that she's not the only one looking for answers. To solve the puzzle of Cooper's life and death, Maggie will have to outwit the Trickster and the other powerful quasi-human creatures that roam the desert hills and feed on creative energy. Although at times Windling's humans come off as too sensitive and artistic, her Native American spirits comprise an intriguing blend of human folklore and alien emotion. Her debut novel is richly imaginative, a captivating mix of traditional fantasy and magical realism. Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From School Library Journal
YA. The desert becomes a magical, tantalizing place in this tale by a noted fantasy writer. Maggie Black, in her 40s, is trying to find a life for herself after spending years putting her ex-husband's career as a musician first while curtailing her own creative urges. When Cooper Davis, an award-winning poet, mysteriously dies, the woman inherits his desert cabin and all it contains. His series of poems titled "The Wood Wife" had intrigued the young Maggie as a student and the two began a correspondence. Maggie moves to the cabin, planning on staying long enough to write a biography of Davis, but the spirits of the Arizona desert take over and she finds herself giving into their power. The beings she encounters, both human and animal, help her accept the ancient spirits that inhabit the area. Sifting through correspondence, rereading Davis's poetry, examining his wife's art, experiencing and accepting unexplainable phenomena, Maggie is pulled into the mystery of their deaths in the canyons east of Tucson and discovers herself in the process. Readers who can suspend the need for concrete reality and accept the unlimited possibilities of space, time, and shape-shifters will enter a realm of fantastical beings, both good and evil, and discover a world that entices and delights the senses. YAs who thrive on fantasy will become caught up in the mythical power of the desert. A well-crafted tale of mystery and suspense.?Dottie Kraft, formerly at Fairfax County Public Schools, VACopyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
A hauntingly evocative Arizona desert landscape is backdrop to a tale of death and Native American spirits as acclaimed story-collection editor Windling turns her talents to writing fiction. Writer Maggie Black inherits the adobe desert house of poet Davis Cooper with whom she corresponded for years but never met. As Maggie tries to uncover the true cause of his death and write his biography, she become entranced by the wild spirituality of the desert. Highly recommended for realistic fantasy collections.Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Kirkus Reviews
Distinctive contemporary fantasy set in the Arizona desert, from the well-known editor (the annual Year's Best Fantasy and Horror, with Ellen Datlow, etc.). When the prize-winning, gin- sozzled English poet Davis Cooper died in a dry gully (of drowning!) near his home east of Tucson, he left his house, papers, and real estate to budding poet Maggie Black, with whom he had corresponded but had never met. Separating from her talented but demanding musician husband Nigel, Maggie takes up residence in Cooper's old house, discovering fragments of unpublished poems, together with a gallery of extraordinary paintings left by Cooper's lover, Anna Navarra--paintings that Maggie finds both provocative and disturbing. The locals, too, seem to hint of another, unseen world behind the real one, a world of magic and metamorphoses that Maggie can almost perceive, whose landscape is defined by mysterious, powerful mages operating by rules that she finds herself gradually able to comprehend. To understand Cooper, Navarra, and the unseen world, Maggie must delve deep inside her own being, where, ultimately, she will find the key to her own poetry--as well as the means to transcend space and time, to actually meet Cooper and unravel the mystery of his bizarre death. A splendid desert enchantment that flows with its own eerie logic--arresting, evocative, and well worked out despite the entirely superfluous last couple of chapters. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


Review
"A wonderful, elegant fantasy--sensuous, fascinating, and eerily spiritual."--Robert Holdstock, author of Mythago Wood

"Richly imaginative, a captivating mix of traditional fantasy and magical realism."--Publishers Weekly

"This is a novel of muscle and tenderness, of sharp edges and great delights."--Charles de Lint



Book Description
Leaving behind her fashionable West Coast life, Maggie Black comes to the Southwestern desert to pursue her passion and her dream. Her mentor, the acclaimed poet Davis Cooper, has mysteriously died in the canyons east of Tucson, bequeathing her his estate and the mystery of his life--and death.

Maggie is astonish by the power of this harsh but beautiful land and captivated by the uncommon people who call it home--especially Fox, a man unlike any she has ever known, who understands the desert's special power.

As she reads Cooper's letters and learns the secrets of his life, Maggie comes face-to-face withe the wild, ancient spirits of the desert--and discovers the hidden power at its heart, a power that will take her on a journey like no other.

FROM OUR EDITORS

Windling is best known for her editorial eye, and for good reason: She manages the difficult trick of finding writing both literate and immediately accessible to present us. Given this novel, it would be a pity if she were known only for that. Clear-eyed, lyrical, thoughtful, and yes, accessible, this work, about the gift -- the many hidden gifts -- a poet's mentor drops into her already complicated and conversely empty life, isn't one to shock you into thinking about things in a different way; it lulls you, and rewards you for the time. Highly recommended -- reminiscent of the best of de Lint.
— Michelle West

FROM THE PUBLISHER

The Wood Wife is the story of Maggie Black, who walked out of her life as the wife of a trendy West Coast musician to pursue her dreams. When Maggie's mentor, prize-winning poet Davis Cooper, died mysteriously in the canyons east of Tucson, he left her his estate, and the mystery of his life - and death. Now, in Cooper's desert home, Maggie begins a remarkable journey of self-discovery that will change her forever. She is astonished by the power of that harsh but beautiful land and intrigued by the uncommon people who call it home - especially by Fox, a man unlike any she has ever known, who understands the desert's special power. As she reads the letters and papers left behind by Cooper and his lover, Anna Naverra - a gifted painter driven mad by the visions she saw - Maggie will come face-to-face with the wild, ancient spirits of that place and undertake a quest to discover their dark, long-hidden secrets.

FROM THE CRITICS

VOYA - Cathi Dunn MacRae

Young adult fantasy readers know Windling through her groundbreaking creation of two beloved series, the Borderland books which spawned the urban fantasy genre of "elves on motorcycles" (Tor, 1986+), and the Fairy Tale Series of adult novels, retelling tales in arresting new form, including Jane Yolen's Best Book for Young Adults, Briar Rose, (Tor, 1992). Windling is an influential editor of anthologies from retold fairy tales such as Ruby Slippers, Golden Tears (Morrow, 1995), to World Fantasy Award-winning annual collections of The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror (St. Martin's/VOYA, December 1994, February 1996), both with Ellen Datlow. After she helped shape the careers of authors from Robin McKinley to Sheri Tepper, her first novel, The Wood Wife, finally allows Windling's admirers to experience her own writing. Conceived as a novella inspired by the work of artist Brian Froud for his Faerielands series (Bantam), The Wood Wife metamorphosed into a full-length adult novel which will mesmerize YA readers of Emma Bull and Charles de Lint, who visualize Faerie co-existing with humanity in our modern world. Windling carries those notions to new levels as she explores how shapeshifting nature spirits share the Tucson desert with poets and artists in whose work they appear. The Wood Wife asks: does art give spirit life and form, or is it the other way around? This tangle of spiritual and artistic mysteries is tackles by Maggie Black, a frustrated poet in her thirties who escapes her controlling musician ex-husband in Los Angeles when she receives an unexpected bequest: the Arizona mountain property of a mentor she never met. Hermit poet Davis Cooper's sudden mysterious death by drowning in the waterless desert is only one of the riddles Maggie must unravel as she inhabits Cooper's house, now hers, searching his writings for clues. She plans to write his biography, but surrounded by all the material with which to construct it-his belongings, private papers, and physical territory-she experiences startling evidence beyond her senses. The desert is so vividly described in Cooper's poetry begins to exert its own influence over Maggie. The ethereal paintings of supernatural creatures by Cooper's partner, Anna Naverra, who also died mysteriously, are haunting her too-especially when she meets Anna's trickster figure Crow face-to-face while hiking. Then a girl with rabbit ears invades her house and sleeps at the bottom of Maggie's bed. Driven to uncover the desert's secrets, Maggie probes the true meaning of Cooper's poetry, his life and death, moving from the realm of the unbelievable to the utter reality of her own life, a new purpose, and a new love. Thoroughly convincing readers that earth spirits exist and interact with us, Windling shifts the borders of the traditional fantasy from the beyond to the here and now. Refusing to stay bound within the limits of magic realism, time travel, native American spirituality, or faerieland fantasy, Windling fuses their elements into a powerful tale of transformations which illuminates the nexus of art, spirit, and humanity. Strewn with enticing snippets of poetry from Neruda, Borges, and other real poets, alongside excerpts from the poems of fictional characters Cooper and Maggie, Windling's novel demonstrates how words create life, which then demand more words to describe the indescribable. As they explore their own creative expression, YA readers are a prime audience for such discoveries, with The Wood Wife's mystical mystery to keep them turning pages. In Windling's hands, the Tucson desert shimmers in brilliant technicolor, and the unseen supernatural beckons the human soul to venture into the unknown. In one of the most original recent novels in a genre too often derivative and stale, fantasy becomes reality. VOYA Codes: 5Q 3P S (Hard to imagine it being any better written, Will appeal with pushing, Senior High-defined as grades 10 to 12).

Locus

Luminous...Interweaves the reality of a woman finding her voice and her path, with fantastic embodiments of nature.

Kirkus Reviews

Distinctive contemporary fantasy set in the Arizona desert, from the well-known editor (the annual Year's Best Fantasy and Horror, with Ellen Datlow, etc.). When the prize-winning, gin- sozzled English poet Davis Cooper died in a dry gully (of drowning!) near his home east of Tucson, he left his house, papers, and real estate to budding poet Maggie Black, with whom he had corresponded but had never met. Separating from her talented but demanding musician husband Nigel, Maggie takes up residence in Cooper's old house, discovering fragments of unpublished poems, together with a gallery of extraordinary paintings left by Cooper's lover, Anna Navarra—paintings that Maggie finds both provocative and disturbing. The locals, too, seem to hint of another, unseen world behind the real one, a world of magic and metamorphoses that Maggie can almost perceive, whose landscape is defined by mysterious, powerful mages operating by rules that she finds herself gradually able to comprehend. To understand Cooper, Navarra, and the unseen world, Maggie must delve deep inside her own being, where, ultimately, she will find the key to her own poetry—as well as the means to transcend space and time, to actually meet Cooper and unravel the mystery of his bizarre death.

A splendid desert enchantment that flows with its own eerie logic—arresting, evocative, and well worked out despite the entirely superfluous last couple of chapters.

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

A wonderful, elegant fantasy -- sensuous, fascinating, and eerily spiritual. — Robert Holdstock