Hide Me Among the Graves
A Novel
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
From Last Call to On Stranger Tides to Declare to Three Days to Never, any book by the inimitable Tim Powers is a wonder. With Hide Me Among the Graves, it’s possible that the uniquely ingenious Powers has surpassed even himself. A breathtaking historical thriller in which art and the supernatural collide, Hide Me Among the Graves transports readers back to mid-19th century London and features a reformed ex-prostitute, a veterinarian, and the vampire ghost of Lord Byron’s onetime physician, uncle to poet Christina Rossetti and her brother, the painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti. A novel that, like all his others, is virtually impossible to pidgeonhole—or to resist—Hide Me Among the Graves is the taut, gripping, and utterly remarkable literary thrill ride that Tim Powers fans have been eagerly waiting for.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The vampiric specter of John Polidori, who published the first work of vampire fiction in 1819 and died a probable suicide in 1821, haunts 1862 London in Powers's stellar supernatural thriller, a sequel of sorts to 1989's The Stress of Her Regard. In particular, Polidori menaces his nephew and niece, pre-Raphaelite artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti and his poetess sister, Christina, who turn for help to reformed prostitute Adelaide McKee; Adelaide's veterinarian lover, John Crawford; and Edward John Trelawny, who, like Polidori, was a member of the Byron and Shelley circle. Polidori is plotting with other members of his ancient race, the Nephilim, to victimize not only the families to which they're attached but the city's entire populace. Powers works an impressively original variation on the vampire theme, and makes the Rossettis' crusade extremely poignant through the revelation that they are their most creative only when under the vampire's malignant influence. The meticulous attention to historical and literary detail grounds the story solidly in its period and enhances its imaginative reach.
