Author Jeffrey Ford's World Fantasy Award-winning novel, The
Physiognomy, introduced Cley, master of a twisted and terrifying
science utilized to keep order in a nightmare city. In the brilliantly
audacious Memoranda, the reformed physiognomist embarked on a surreal
quest through the mind of the monster who imagined and constructed the
dark metropolis. Now the third and final chapter of Cley's strange life
journey dispatches him to the inconceivable ends of his world--and
strands him in the perilous heart of a sentient wilderness.
One creature still lives in the dust and rubble of Master Drachton
Below's destroyed Well-Built City: Misrix, Below's demon "son," refined
and civilized by his father's loving curse of humanity. With the
comforting aid of Sheer Beauty, the altered being fights his loneliness
by recording the adventures of a hunter who wanders with a dog named
Wood through a breathtaking wild at the realm's farthest extremities.
Cley is a man who has witnessed miracles, and both he and his world have
been changed by them. But remnants of his grim past still haunt the
former Physiognomist, First Class. And the old Cley cannot be buried
until he meets once more with a woman he gravely disfigured--who, in
turn, served as catalyst to his transformation from man of "science" to
folk healer to wilderness hunter--and she waits in the true village of
Wenau in the hidden heart of the Beyond.
The journey promises to be a lengthy and a dangerous one, with
astonishing sights and circumstances at every turning. Demons and
wraiths inhabit this strange land, feeding on flesh and terror. Each
step forward brings Cley inescapable responsibilities as it carries him
into the core of legend and deep into a mystery as old as time.
