The Village Sang To The Sea A Memoir Of Magic [Paperback]

During the Cold War a 13-year-old American boy, Brad Lattimer, moves with his family to a fishing village in Northern Italy. It is no ordinary village. But Brad is welcomed like a long-lost cousin. His teacher is a gentle hunchback with a lisp who is more than he seems to be; and there are witches in the olive groves who will poison your cat, but not for the reasons you imagine. In those same groves there is a village so small it shouldn't be a village, its red doorways too short for normal men to pass through easily; and at night, on its narrow cobble street, creatures that should not exist walk while a single baby cries forever. On the sands of the next cove sits a pale girl who somehow knows the poetry of the great Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley and wants you to drown with her, just as Percy drowned near this village over a century ago. This is the village where Brad, too, will start to dream strange dreams and write his first stories; where, he will fall sick because the village's magic has a hold on him: It wants him to become something other than a boy--something that can never leave it--something it can have as its own forever. The Village Sang to the Sea: A Memoir of Magic is a uniquely haunting book. It's a beauty in the fullest meaning of the word. --Peter S. Beagle, World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement winner and author of The Last Unicorn The Village Sang to the Sea is that rarity: a book that delicately and perfectly captures the magic we all know underlies the world. You will not forget this book. Not ever. ( --Nancy Kress, Hugo and Nebula awards winner The Village Sang to the Sea: A Memoir of Magic is just what its sub-title promises: magic. Its evocative, authentic, beautiful and completely compelling. --James P. Blaylock, World Fantasy Award winner Bruce McAllister's gorgeous new novel is magical realism at its very best. I loved it. --Terri Windling, Bram Stoker Award winner and co-editor ls*