The Black Bird Oracle

A Novel

By: Deborah Harkness

Narrated by: Jennifer Ikeda

Diana Bishop journeys to the darkest places within herself—and her family history—in the highly anticipated fifth novel of the beloved #1 New York Times bestselling All Souls series.

“The Black Bird Oracle deftly explores the nexus of memory, history, and parenthood—the magic, pain, and promises mothers pass onto their children.”—Jodi Picoult

Deborah Harkness first introduced the world to Diana Bishop, an Oxford scholar and witch, and vampire geneticist Matthew de Clermont in A Discovery of Witches. Drawn to each other despite long-standing taboos, these two otherworldly beings found themselves at the center of a battle for a lost, enchanted manuscript known as Ashmole 782. Since then, they have fallen in love, traveled to Elizabethan England, dissolved the Covenant between the three species, and awoken the dark powers within Diana’s family line.

Now, Diana and Matthew receive a formal demand from the Congregation: They must test the magic of their seven-year-old twins, Pip and Rebecca. Concerned with their safety and desperate to avoid the same fate that led her parents to spellbind her, Diana decides to forge a different path for her family’s future and answers a message from a great-aunt she never knew existed, Gwyneth Proctor, whose invitation simply reads: It’s time you came home, Diana.

On the hallowed ground of Ravenswood, the Proctor family home, and under the tutelage of Gwyneth, a talented witch grounded in higher magic, a new era begins for Diana: a confrontation with her family’s dark past and a reckoning for her own desire for even greater power—if she can let go, finally, of her fear of wielding it.

In this stunning new novel, grand in scope, Deborah Harkness deepens the beloved world of All Souls with powerful new magic and long-hidden secrets, and the path Diana finds at Ravenswood leads to the most consequential moments yet in this cherished series.

* This audiobook edition comes with a downloadable PDF including a family tree.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2024 Deborah Harkness (P)2024 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“The Black Bird Oracle ushers in a thrilling new era for Diana, an Oxford scholar and powerful witch, as she navigates marriage to the vampire Matthew and motherhood, while reckoning with dark secrets from her family’s storied past. There’s no better time to get swept up in the romance, adventure, and magic of the All Souls world, beginning with A Discovery of Witches.”—Bustle

“Excitement is high as the release date for The Black Bird Oracle approaches. . . . It’s a chapter of Diana’s story that longtime fans won’t want to miss.”—Screenrant, 15 Most Anticipated Fantasy Books Coming Out the Rest of 2024

“The Black Bird Oracle was well worth the wait: Not only does it reunite us with the powerful love story of Diana and Matthew, it deftly explores the nexus of memory, history, and parenthood—the magic, pain, and promises mothers pass onto their children. Harkness’s lush prose makes a fantastical world real enough to touch; her characters are so real they feel like family.”—#1 New York Times bestselling author Jodi Picoult

Disappointed.

I listened to the whole series again before Black bird was released, and I’m not a fan of this one. A lot of new characters were introduced. There was a lot of Diana, not enough Mathew and where is Glasgow? The children were interesting, but not until the final pages.
Overall I feel like I wasted a credit. Narration was excellent as always.

Another home run!

Just finished this amazing story and am already waiting to start the countdown to the next.

She’s Back

I loved getting back into the world of Diana Bishop Claremont 6 years later. This story is a clear departure from the original story with the same level of mystery, magic and intrigue.

Once again Harkness takes you into a vivid world of fun Creatures with humor, history and heart. If you loved the original trilogy you will enjoy this book, and it’s obvious the story doesn’t end here.

it's captivating imagery and symbolism. a true representation of witch lore.

everyone on earth should read these books and especially this one. it's an amazing book with intense magic.

So glad it continues!

The power plays and machinations start anew with a different set of villains but Diana must face the challenge. Lots of secrets revealed

Excellent Book!

I absolutely loved this book! very well written and very well read, I couldn't put it down. I finished it in a day and a half. I wish there were more. so happy there was another book, just wish there were more coming.

Magic, magic, and more magic

I enjoyed the new characters and location, and the reappearance of old ones. Watching the twins grow into themselves was a delight! Just my personal preference, but it was too much Diana and far too little Matthew. To be fair, I suspect that Deborah Harkness is using the particulars of his rather diminished appearance in this book to lay a necessary foundation for further development of his character in the future books in the series, so I did take careful note of them. That is my hope at least, for he is by far my favorite character in the all the previous books and I missed him in this one! I found the writing often unnecessarily dense and florid. The text, I believe, could have benefitted from more temperate editing, but on the other hand, the author is trying to convey the intangible experience of magic. Perhaps she was trying to invoke a cloud of enchantment by making use of a cloud of words. However, the excesses of description made her train of thought hard to follow and for me, got in the way of advancing the compelling storytelling and character development which are her real gifts. Nevertheless, I intend to read it again several times, as I have the other All Souls books, and to explore happily the fantasy world she is creating. As always, I appreciated her use of historical personages and events to frame and structure her story. I am, as is the author, a descendant of a Bay Colony Puritan who was convicted of witchcraft, so I can only applaud her exploration of the cruelty endured by the victims and of the long overdue recognition and memorialization of the injustice done to them, as well as the relevance of that horrid history for our own time. Jennifer Ikeda’s narration of this story, requiring the creation of instantly recognizable and individualized voices for multiple characters was, as always, terrific! In short, it was once again a pleasure to spend time with these two artists. Harkness and Ikeda—what a team!

Great follow up!

I liked that no facts from the previous books were changed. Their story just continued to unfold. I had difficulty with “Time’s Covenant” because Marcus’ history was totally changed. This book was true to the original three. I can’t wait for the next book in what seems to be a wonderful series.

The story weaves you in…

I loved the Discovery of Witches trilogy and this book was a perfect addition to the story. I look forward to more enchanting stories from Deborah.

Amazing story! A wonderful continuation of the All Souls Trilogy

Loved this book so much!! The characters so rich as usual. Getting to know the twins as well as the Proctor family and ancestors was a delight.