In an alternate 18th-century world, America teems with blond savages while "Roumania" and Germany battle for European domination. A magic book concocted by conjuress Aegypta Schenck sends young Miranda Popescu, a descendant of ancient royalty, and Roumania's hope of freedom from dark tyranny, to Massachusetts to escape the fiendish Baroness Nicola Ceausescu and the heinous Elector of Ratisbon.
With her best friend, Andromeda (turned magically into first a yellow dog and later a charismatic male Roumanian courtier), and her loyal teenage admirer, Peter, Miranda must make hard choices to start fulfilling her destiny.
'A quietly and profoundly original novel. To compare Paul Park with Philip Pullmann or John Crowley gives a hint of the kind of satisfaction his fiction provides' Ursula K. Le Guin
- ISBN10 0330452177
- ISBN13 9780330452175
- Publish Date 6 July 2007
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 1 October 2010
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher Pan Macmillan
- Imprint Tor
- Format Paperback (A-Format (178x111 mm))
- Pages 480
- Language English