Babayaga, Toby Barlow
Babayaga, Toby Barlow
List: $19.99 | Sale: $13.99
Club: $9.99

Babayaga

Author: Toby Barlow

Narrator: Dan John Miller

Unabridged: 14 hr 21 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 08/30/2013


Synopsis

Will is a young American ad executive in Paris. Except his agency is a front for the CIA. It's 1959 and the Cold War is going strong. But Will doesn't think he's a warrior—he's just a good-hearted Detroit ad guy who can't seem to figure out Parisian girls.

Zoya is a beautiful young woman wandering les boulevards, sad-eyed, and coming off a bad breakup. In fact, she impaled her ex on a spike. Zoya, it turns out, has been a beautiful young woman for hundreds of years; she and her far more traditionally witchy-looking companion, Elga, have been thriving unnoticed in the bloody froth of Europe's wars.

Inspector Vidot is a hardworking Paris police detective who cherishes quiet nights at home. But when he follows a lead from a grisly murder to the abode of an ugly old woman, he finds himself turned into a flea.

Oliver is a patrician, fun-loving American who has come to Paris to start a literary journal with the help of friends in D.C., who ask for a few favors in return. He's in well over his head, but it's nothing that a cocktail can't fix. Right?

Add a few chance encounters, a chorus of some more angry witches, a strung-out jazzman or two, a weaponized LSD program, and a cache of rifles buried in the Bois de Bologne—and that's a novel! But while Toby Barlow's Babayaga may start as just a joyful romp though the City of Light, it quickly grows into a daring, moving exploration of love, mortality, and responsibility.

About Toby Barlow

Toby Barlow is executive creative director at the advertising agency JWT in Detroit and a contributor to the literary magazine n+1 and the Huffington Post. He is also the author of Sharp Teeth. Toby splits his time between Detroit, Michigan, and New York City.


Reviews

Goodreads review by D.M. on October 07, 2013

As a Russian, I'm partial to everything concerning Baba Yaga. And I dislike it when she's used as a prop to describe something or someone completely different (Which happens almost every time they write about her nowadays). I'm not going to lunge into comparisons here; and anyway the witches in the......more

Goodreads review by Kathrina on August 18, 2013

This novel is an excellent example of how to use perspective as a tool for deepening your story. The shifting point-of-view not only provides additional perspectives on the events of the plot, but cuts to the heart of each character's commitment to the events. And the events are a bit madcap, which......more

Goodreads review by Suzanne on October 05, 2013

Detroit may be a mess, but at least they’ve got Toby Barlow and that’s quite an asset. Babayaga should probably more properly get a 4.75 or 4.8 on Suzanne’s Almost Impossible to Get a 5-Star Rating System, because it didn’t change my life or anything, but I did enjoy it very much. I think I’m roundi......more

Goodreads review by Oriana on March 28, 2021

Says Emily at Word Bookstore: Babayaga is a sort of magical realist detective novel set in the middle of the twentieth century in Paris, with witches, ad men who are actually spies, and the most incredible monologues from an inspector-turned-flea. Yep! ^^In truth I have no idea how long ago I read th......more

Goodreads review by Olga on February 29, 2020

Oh, boy... Done, finally. How could I not grab this: Russian folklore, Baba Yaga, Paris, murder mysteries, spy thriller... Dark comedy, action, sex, intrigue. It was supposed to be amazing. I was anticipating another "Good Omen" or a Tiffany Aching adventure. But... Oh well. There will never be anothe......more