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  • Published: 24 February 2009
  • ISBN: 9780553385762
  • Imprint: Random House Worlds
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 384
  • RRP: $45.00
Categories:

Palimpsest

A Novel




In the Cities of Coin and Spice and In the Night Garden introduced readers to the unique and intoxicating imagination of Catherynne M. Valente. Now she weaves a lyrically erotic spell of a place where the grotesque and the beautiful reside and the passport to our most secret fantasies begins with a stranger’s kiss.…

Between life and death, dreaming and waking, at the train stop beyond the end of the world is the city of Palimpsest. To get there is a miracle, a mystery, a gift, and a curse—a voyage permitted only to those who’ve always believed there’s another world than the one that meets the eye. Those fated to make the passage are marked forever by a map of that wondrous city tattooed on their flesh after a single orgasmic night. To this kingdom of ghost trains, lion-priests, living kanji, and cream-filled canals come four travelers: Oleg, a New York locksmith; the beekeeper November; Ludovico, a binder of rare books; and a young Japanese woman named Sei. They’ve each lost something important—a wife, a lover, a sister, a direction in life—and what they will find in Palimpsest is more than they could ever imagine.

  • Published: 24 February 2009
  • ISBN: 9780553385762
  • Imprint: Random House Worlds
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 384
  • RRP: $45.00
Categories:

About the author

Catherynne Valente

Catherynne M. Valente was born in the Pacific Northwest, grew up in California, and now lives in Ohio with her two dogs. This is her fifth novel.

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Praise for Palimpsest

Praise for In the Cities of Coin and Spice:

  • "A fairy tale lover's wildest dream come true...Valente has created a thought-provoking storytelling tour de force" --Publishers Weekly
  • "Extraordinary...no summary can do justice to the bedazzling intricacies on bountiful display here."--Kirkus Reviews, starred review
  • "A masterpiece of imagery and sensual detail while evoking an entire world through the medium of mythmaking. As with its predecessor, this Arabian Nights-like fantasy belongs in every library." --Library Journal
  • Praise for In the Night Garden:
  • "There is an entire mythology in this book, in which the themes of familiar fairy tales are picked apart and rearranged into a new and wonderful whole. The narrative is a nested, many-faceted thing...a wonderful interpretation of what fairy tales ought to be."--Booklist, starred review
  • "Valente's publisher compares this book to Arabian Nights, and that comparison is hardly hyperbole...A work of beautifully relayed, interlinked fairy tales."--Kirkus Reviews, starred review