'This epic fantasy from Elizabeth Knox has something for everyone-the search for a mysterious book, talking ravens, police detectives and academics, gods and demons, a giant saltwater crocodile, the bucolic English countryside and magical gates to hidden worlds. Reading the book is like holding folds of shot silk to the light, finding green flash in something that looks purple, and appreciating how thoughtfully the warp and weft embrace each other. I'm in awe of it, ultimately, its precision and care, and its wry, understated humor.'

One of LitHub's 'Most Anticipated Books of 2021' One of The New York Times' 'Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Books of 2021' The Absolute Book is a sweeping novel of journeys and returns, from contemporary England to realms beyond ours, from New Zealand to Purgatory itself, intimately weaving together the stories of vivid characters who face a reckoning that could change the future of all of these worlds. But Shift is key to both the unimaginably precious scroll inside the Firestarter and to the outcome of the threatened war, and he has an ambitious plan of his own. The land, home to a beautiful people who long ago bargained a terrible price for their idyllic existence, is now threatened from the precincts of Hell itself, and Taryn is of great interest to the rebels. But her successful book about the perils that threaten libraries mentions an ancient scroll box-called the Firestarter-that has inexplicably survived numerous fires, including one at her own grandparents' estate, and now powers in both this world and beyond are looking for her.ĭI Jacob Berger has questions about Taryn's past and his dogged interest means they both suddenly find themselves in a mysterious land of peace and plenty, carried there by a shadowy young man named Shift. Taryn Cornick believes she has put her sister's violent death and her own complicity in an act of retribution behind her.

An epic fantasy about ancient treacheries that span worlds, a mysterious scroll box that has survived centuries of fire, and the undying power of stories.

The absolute book