Spindle's End

The evil fairy Pernicia has set a curse on Princess Briar-Rose: she is fated to prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel and fall into an endless, poisoned sleep.

Katriona, a young fairy, kidnaps the princess in order to save her; she and her aunt raise the child in their small village, where no one knows her true identity.

But Pernicia is looking for her, intent on revenge for a defeat four hundred years old.

Robin McKinley's masterful version of Sleeping Beauty is, like all of her work, a remarkable literary feat.