VIDEO The magical new novel from the bestselling author of The Night Circus.
Zachary Ezra Rawlins is a graduate student in Vermont when he discovers a strange book hidden in the library stacks. As he turns the pages, entranced by tales of lovelorn prisoners, key collectors, and nameless acolytes, he reads something strange- a story from his own childhood. Bewildered by this inexplicable book and desperate to make sense of how his own life came to be recorded, Zachary uncovers a series of clues - a bee, a key and a sword - that lead him to a masquerade party in New York, to a secret club, and through a doorway to a subterranean library, hidden far below the surface of the earth.
What Zachary finds in this curious place is more than just a buried home for books and their guardians - it is a place of lost cities and seas, lovers who pass notes under doors and across time, and of stories whispered by the dead. Zachary learns of those who have sacrificed much to protect this realm, relinquishing their sight and their tongues to preserve this archive, and also those who are intent on its destruction.
Together with Mirabel, a fierce, pink-haired protector of the place, and Dorian, a handsome barefoot man with shifting alliances, Zachary travels the twisting tunnels, darkened stairwells, crowded ballrooms, and sweetly-soaked shores of this magical world, discovering his purpose - in both the mysterious book and in his own life.
Untitled This book is a sumptuous feast of a novel which you will want to take your time with. Zachary Ezra Rawlins is just a normal kind of boy who enjoys reading, computer games and well crafted cocktails, but when he finds a mysterious book in the university library his life is forever changed. Meeting a mysterious woman at a ball and finding a door into a hidden world, Zachary delves into a land of story under the earth, where bees and keys and cats and mysteries abound. Can he follow the story to the end, find the heart and be the hero? Or is that not what this story actually needs? A book even better than the Night Circus, Morgenstern has outdone herself with the Starless Sea. You'll love it for it's prose and the sheer number of vignettes she has managed to weave in, which seem inconsequential at the time, but are deftly threaded into the central narrative as the story grows and grows. Anyone who loves the idea of an endless library (with endless glasses of champagne) will love diving into the Starless Sea. Take your time with it, you'll be bereft when it ends. - Shannon (QBD) Guest , 13/11/2019
Untitled The most incredible book I've read in a long time. Rich with evocative imagery and lyrical writing, this fantastical tale of a subterranean library held me captive until the very last page. - Eleanor (QBD) Guest , 07/11/2019