Hey, it's NPR's book of the day. I'm Andrew Limbaugh. The thing about high fantasy,

with all its demons and kingdoms and palace intrigue, is that it's never just about those things,

right? Like how American superhero fantasies come from fighting actual real-life Nazis,

the lineage of fantasy and folklore in today's book stems from

fighting imperialism. The book is called Song of Silver Flame Like Night by author Amelie Wen Zhao.

And it's about a young girl who has to learn the ancient magic of her people in order to

do right by her conquered kingdom. And she talked to Hira-askolani Saxana about how it was inspired not just by old

Chinese mythology, but also by anti-Asian racism today.

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So in a few lines, can you give us a little bit of a tease of what this story is about?

Absolutely.

So Song of Silver Flame Like Night is a Chinese Xinxpired story of a girl in a fallen and conquered kingdom

who believes the ancient magic of her people is dead, until she meets a

powerful young magician who tells her that the key to liberating their nation might lie in

awakening the demons that sleep at its heart. And it is deeply and intimately inspired by the

mythology, folklore, and history of China, and it pays homage to the rich legacy of Xinxia as well as wu Xia stories

that form a lot of our cultural heritage. Yeah, I want to ask you about that, because I have to tell you,

when I picked up this book, I honestly did think it would be, you know, another generic Y.A.

fantasy novel. But I was really drawn in by how unique this narrative felt.

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