Description

Fetter was raised to kill, honed as a knife to cut down his sainted father. This gave him plenty to talk about in therapy.

He walked among invisible powers: devils and anti-gods that mock the mortal form. He learned a lethal catechism, lost his shadow, and gained a habit for secrecy. After a blood-soaked childhood, Fetter escaped his rural hometown for the big city, and fell into a broader world where divine destinies are a dime a dozen.

Everything in Luriat is more than it seems. Group therapy is recruitment for a revolutionary cadre. Junk email hints at the arrival of a god. Every door is laden with potential, and once closed may never open again. The city is scattered with Bright Doors, looming portals through which a cold wind blows. In this unknowable metropolis, Fetter will discover what kind of man he is, and his discovery will rewrite the world.

Publisher Review

"Chandrasekera builds a dizzyingly complex world, with enough ideas for 10 books, and it's all entertaining enough that his theme - the dangers of religious extremism paired with racist totalitarianism - sneaks up on you." -The Washington Post "... dreamlike and piercing in its emotional truth ... hard to put down as it is to step out of a dream: and like a dream, even when it doesn't make sense, it is true. What's truly unbelievable is that this is someone's first book." -New Scientist "One of the most satisfying novels, in any genre, that I've encountered in quite some time." -Chicago Review of Books "Inspired and dreamy book" -The Wall Street Journal "Dreamlike and inventive, this unusual novel is a complicated read that ably pairs the mundane with the mystical." Library Journal "The biased, often violent, incomplete nature of history-telling will engage readers long after finishing." Booklist "A meandering meditation on mind-body duality, fanaticism, and eschatology that will appeal only to fans of the most cerebral fantasies." Publishers Weekly "Bold, compulsive, dazzling" -SFX, 5 star review