And the Sky Bled

By: S. Hati

Narrated by: Soneela Nankani, Neil Shah

Amid the chaos of a dying city ruled by colonizers, three rivals—a thief, a slumlord, and an heiress—race to find a hidden cache of magic that will decide the city's fate.

In the occupied city of Tejomaya, calor—a magical fossil fuel—is found only in the blood rains that fall from the sky. While a six-month drought has brought Tejomaya to a desperate standstill, rumors of a secret stash of magic propel three unlikely treasure seekers to risk everything.

Tenacious and street-smart Zain Jatav has been forced to steal calor for her slumlord bosses for years. Finding the magic reserve might be her only key to freedom. But she'll have to contend with Iravan Khotar, a slumlord himself and an ambitious revolutionary hoping to use the same magic to save his people from the mysterious illness devastating the slums—and to bolster a fight against their oppressors. Meanwhile, heiress Anastasia Drakos leads the ruling council of Tejomaya from the safety of a nearby island. With the hidden magic, she could finally take full control of the city and crush the slums beneath her unyielding fist.

As Zain, Iravan, and Anastasia draw closer to finding the treasure, their paths tangle, and not for the first time—they met before, a decade ago, in a fire that destroyed each of their lives in different ways. Their reunion might bring the already-weakened city to its knees.

Exploring the devastating mechanisms of power, this searing climate fantasy breathes life into a crumbling world hovering on the brink of total destruction.

©2024 S. Hati (P)2024 Podium Audio

Critic reviews

“And the Sky Bled is a book that grabs you by the shoulders, stares into your eyes, and does not let go until the end. It’s set in a fascinating, deeply built world that explores extractive colonialism and the resultant environmental devastation, but does so through the very human experiences of its characters. It’s an intricate tangle of histories and relationships—loss, guilt, regret, hope, survival, and the shifting balance of power. It’s a book that asks “What now?” and then answers: “Now we find a way to move on.”—Moniquill Blackgoose, author of national bestseller To Shape a Dragon’s Breath, a Washington Post and NPR Best Book of the Year

“A remarkable debut! And the Sky Bled does what an excellent fantasy novel should: it forces readers to confront the powers, politics, and pitfalls of their own world by plunging them into a magical one.”—Hannah Gordon (@hngisreading), BookTok influencer

“An intimate study of power and revolution in a magical, ferocious world. Hati’s riveting prose and reimagining of South Asian culture form a thrilling climate fantasy that left me on the edge of my seat.”—Ayushi (@bookwormbullet), book influencer