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Eleanor Lian

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Forthcoming

Us… Between Earth and Stars

Forthcoming

Eleanor Lian’s new novel Us… Between Earth and Stars (Noi… tra terra e stelle) is nearing completion: a story of generational coming-of-age interwoven with the world of sport. Across China, Korea and Japan, the love between Narae — a young Sino-Korean volleyball prospect — and Xu Fei, Chinese captain of the Moonlight Wolves, intertwines with first love, loyal friendships and the dreams of an entire generation. Volleyball, judo, figure skating, idol culture and Blaze Spike League — the fantasy e-sports game created by Tian Ming, destined for the global Fantasy E-sports System and the Olympics of the future — are the arenas in which their lives gradually become inseparable. Even when broken families, violence, doping and betrayal threaten to overwhelm them, they learn to seek strength together, to grow, and not to stop believing in the future — between the sometimes ruthless concreteness of life and the brightness of dreams.

RCP

Author · Screenwriter · Actress

About Eleanor

Eleonora Baliani, known by her pen name Eleanor Lian, is an Italian author and screenwriter, with her head among stories and her heart adrift among the clouds. Born in Genoa in 1980, she trained across theatre, film, and writing, studying with great masters such as Giancarlo Giannini, Pupi Avati, and Romano Scavolini. For years she taught acting and creative writing, while building her career as a screenwriter for Italian and international productions.

Her work includes E poi... tutti giù per terra, screened at the TLC Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles. In 2019 she made her fiction debut with La Sfida di Aileen, followed by the fantasy novel Maira e il Lago di Cera.

2024 marks her entry as an international author into Roberto Calvo Productions in London, where she adopts the pen name Eleanor Lian. With the same publisher she releases The Clown and the Ice Castle, published in Italian and English and put forward for the 2025 Strega Prize and the Booker Prize. 2025 brings Bein and the World of the Colors, repeatedly ranked first among Amazon's most-gifted books, and Sigillum Maximum — The Seal of the Seven Secrets, also envisioned for webnovel format.

A letter from Eleanor

The greatest power is not magic. It is the ability to change.

ICE

Music box

The Clown and the Ice Castle

In the kingdom of Iontach, little Prince George loses his parents in a tragic accident on the day of a carnival feast. The child's grief unleashes a mysterious magic that freezes the castle and all its inhabitants in ice, cutting him off from the world. As the years pass the castle becomes a forbidden legend, and George grows up alone — an eternal clown trapped in his own curse. Much later, a curious girl named Thalìa discovers the castle's secret and resolves to break the silence around it. Guided by a music box tied to the royal family's past, she senses that only by recreating the feast of the tragedy can she free the prince from the freeze that has swallowed his heart. To succeed she must persuade the whole village to defy fear and face the forgotten castle. When at last they meet, George is a solitary young man, still dressed as a clown and wrapped in an everlasting armour of ice. Only Thalìa's courage can bring life back to the castle and melt the curse.

Rainbow ribbon

Bein and the World of the Colors

In the World of Colors, each of the five kingdoms is made of a single, vibrant color: Geal is white as whipped cream, Qiotàr yellow as ripe lemons, Veidhlìn red as cherries, Mearchlàr a deep blueberry blue, and Umùkar black as blackberries. When a devastating earthquake destroys Geal, only little Bein survives. But his white skin makes him different, and no one will take him in. Tired, hungry and alone, at the gates of Mearchlàr he devises a plan. Will he be accepted this time and find a new family?

Seven-secrets seal

Sigillum Maximum — The Seal of the Seven Secrets

In the Kingdom of Nuvolandia, the magical parchment that keeps harmony among the seven kingdoms of the Great Universal Kingdom — known everywhere as the Sigillum Maximum — is destroyed by the mysterious Black Knight. The realm and its people are turned to stone. The only one to escape the spell is a thirteen-year-old girl: Princess Aileen. With the help of the elves she learns that the only way to save her world is to recover the seven magical secrets that, reunited, can bring the Sigillum back to life. Inexperienced and afraid, but driven by the wish to free her people and avert catastrophe, Aileen sets out on an extraordinary journey with the young warrior Dorcha and the valiant orc-troll Grogher. Crossing kingdoms of elves, gnomes, mermaids, fairies, sprites, orcs and trolls, the three friends face ever harder trials, challenging not only the dangers of the world but also themselves. As time runs out and war among the peoples draws near, their mission becomes more than a quest. It becomes the discovery of who they truly are.

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