From the author of the New York Times international bestseller, THE
ELEGANCE OF THE HEDGEHOG, comes an epic fantasy rich in poetry and
imagination about the eternal conflict between good and evil.
Alejandro de Yepes and Jesús Rocamora, young officers in the Spanish
regular army, are stationed alone at Castillo when, out of nowhere, a
friendly redhead appears to them in the cellar. There is something
magnetic and deeply mysterious about this Petrus. Alejandro and Jesús
are bewitched, and, in the middle of the sixth year of the longest war
humankind has ever endured, they abandon their post to follow him across
a bridge only he can see.
Petrus brings them to a world of lingering fog, strange beings, poetry,
music, natural wonders, harmony, and extraordinary beauty. This is where
the fate of the world and all its living creatures is decided. Yet this
world too is under threat. A long battle against the forces of
disenchantment is drawing to a climactic close. Will poetry and beauty
prevail over darkness and death? And what role will Alejandro and Jesús
play? Muriel Barbery's new richly imagined novel, the sequel to The
Life of Elves, will transport readers to a lost world exposed to the
constant churn of civilizations and remind them of the power of poetry
and imagination.
