Fischer's impatience and daring pay off. 'I promise you will want to read it more than once,' said Victoria Glendinning, and I've read it three times now, and not because I had to, but because I wanted to. Which is itself out of the ordinary.

Stranger books have seldom been written, and when they have, they've seldom been this fast-paced, this funny, or this effortlessly readable

The freshest, most fascinating novel I've read in years

A work of rare enchantment which could charm a smile out of a stone

So good I promise you will want to read it more than once

Lingering, sensuous and provocative, Christopher's unusual fantasy is a masterful exercise in the necromancy of poetry ripened into prose