1920s OXFORD: HOME TO C.S. LEWIS, J.R.R. TOLKIEN... AND ANNA FRANCIS, A YOUNG GREEK REFUGEE LOOKING TO ESCAPE THE GRIM REALITY OF HER NEW LIFE. THE NIGHT THEY CROSS PATHS, NONE SUSPECT THE FANTASTIC WORLD AT WORK AROUND THEM.
Anna Francis lives in a tall old house with her father and her doll Penelope. She is a refugee, a piece of flotsam washed up in England by the tides of the Great War and the chaos that trailed in its wake. Once upon a time, she had a mother and a brother, and they all lived together in the most beautiful city in the world, by the shores of Homer’s wine-dark sea.
But that is all gone now, and only to her doll does she ever speak of it, because her father cannot bear to hear. She sits in the shadows of the tall house and watches the rain on the windows, creating worlds for herself to fill out the loneliness. The house becomes her own little kingdom, an island full of dreams and halfforgotten memories. And then one winter day, she finds an interloper in the topmost, dustiest attic of the house. A boy named Luca with yellow eyes, who is as alone in the world as she is.
That day, she’ll lose everything in her life, and find the only real friend she may ever know.
‘Very good indeed. A great Oxford novel; and the wonderfully conjured period detail – Tolkien and Lewis are wonderful – given added resonance by the deep past of English myth and mystery that underlies it. The characters are expertly written: they feel absolutely real, and the real-ness evocatively off sets the deftly handled supernatural elements’
Adam Roberts, author of Bête
‘Beautifully written, wryly observed.’
Tony Ballantyne, author of Dream London
‘This is a wonderful, magical book, full of ancient myth and set in an England on the threshold of the modern world.’
Dave Hutchinson, bestselling author of Europe in Autumn
Anna Francis lives in a tall old house with her father and her doll Penelope. She is a refugee, a piece of flotsam washed up in England by the tides of the Great War and the chaos that trailed in its wake. Once upon a time, she had a mother and a brother, and they all lived together in the most beautiful city in the world, by the shores of Homer’s wine-dark sea.
But that is all gone now, and only to her doll does she ever speak of it, because her father cannot bear to hear. She sits in the shadows of the tall house and watches the rain on the windows, creating worlds for herself to fill out the loneliness. The house becomes her own little kingdom, an island full of dreams and halfforgotten memories. And then one winter day, she finds an interloper in the topmost, dustiest attic of the house. A boy named Luca with yellow eyes, who is as alone in the world as she is.
That day, she’ll lose everything in her life, and find the only real friend she may ever know.
‘Very good indeed. A great Oxford novel; and the wonderfully conjured period detail – Tolkien and Lewis are wonderful – given added resonance by the deep past of English myth and mystery that underlies it. The characters are expertly written: they feel absolutely real, and the real-ness evocatively off sets the deftly handled supernatural elements’
Adam Roberts, author of Bête
‘Beautifully written, wryly observed.’
Tony Ballantyne, author of Dream London
‘This is a wonderful, magical book, full of ancient myth and set in an England on the threshold of the modern world.’
Dave Hutchinson, bestselling author of Europe in Autumn
