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A Stranger in Olondria

2013 fantasy novel by Sofia Samatar

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 5, 2026
Entity authorityQ141452077 ↗
Source-derived summary

A Stranger in Olondria: Being the Complete Memoirs of the Mystic, Jevick of Tyom is a 2013 fantasy novel by Sofia Samatar. It tells the story of Jevick, the son of a pepper merchant who travels to the country of Olondria. Jevick encounters the spirit of a dead girl and is pulled into a conflict between two powerful religious groups.

The book is the author's debut novel and was followed by a companion novel, The Winged Histories, in 2016. It received critical acclaim, with critics commenting on its exploration of language, literature, and African traditions. It won the 2014 British Fantasy Award for Best Fantasy Novel, Crawford Award, and World Fantasy Award for Best Novel.

Plot

Jevick is the son of a wealthy pepper farmer. He lives in Tyom, an isolated village in the Tea Islands. Each year, his father visits the far-off land of Olondria to sell his harvest. One year, his father brings Jevick a tutor from Olondria.

Editorial summary

“A Stranger in Olondria” enters the record as 2013 fantasy novel by Sofia Samatar. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Stranger, Olondria and fantasy can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA useful identification and reception guide that helps separate the work itself from editions, performances, ownership and later interpretation. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2013, 2016, 2014—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Stranger, Olondria and fantasy.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“A Stranger in Olondria” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Stranger, Olondria and fantasy provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 5, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q141452077. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2013, 2016 and 2014.

Critical limits

Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “A Stranger in Olondria”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow A Stranger in Olondria primary sources, A Stranger in Olondria archive and Stranger research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “A Stranger in Olondria”?
  2. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
  3. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “A Stranger in Olondria” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.