A successful film maker, painter, playwright, and best-selling author, Clive Barker commands an astonishing range of creative talent. Drawing upon the literary genius that created Sacrament, he profits to the realm from the supernatural with this intriguing saga of two households, one human and the various other divine. Among America’s wealthiest & most influential families because the Civil War, the Gearys harbor terrible secrets. The Barbarossa family’s roots are more ancient and ethereal, but they are destined to the Gearys with a distributed history of murder, insanity, and adultery. When Rachel Geary and Galilee, the seductive prince from the Barbarossa clan, fall in love, they unleash effective enmities that could kill both dynasties. Shorter and even more conventional than some of Barker’s other work, this novel is especially rich with complicated, passionate, three-dimensional characters, lush settings, and elegant vocabulary. Paul Hecht’s powerful narration gives added depth to this dark, sumptuous book.