The Book of Dust: The Secret Commonwealth (Book of Dust, Volume 2)

Pullman, Philip

ISBN 10: 0553510673 ISBN 13: 9780553510676

Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2019

Synopsis

"It's a stunning achievement, this universe Pullman has created and continues to build on." --The New York Times

Return to the parallel world of His Dark Materials in the second volume of Philip Pullman's new bestselling masterwork The Book of Dust, and discover what comes next for Lyra, "one of fantasy's most indelible heroines." (The New York Times Magazine)

Lyra Silvertongue's adventures in the North are long over--the windows between the many worlds have been sealed, and her beloved Will is lost to her. She does still have the alethiometer: the truth-telling device given to her by the master of Jordan College, which guided her journey.

Lyra doesn't know the full story of the alethiometer, though. Or the role that young Malcolm Polstead played in bringing both the instrument and baby Lyra to Jordan. She's now a twenty-year-old undergraduate at St. Sophia's College. To her, Malcolm is Dr. Polstead, an overly solicitous professor she would prefer to avoid.

But intrigue is swirling around Lyra once more. Her daemon Pantalaimon is witness to a brutal murder, and the dying man entrusts them with secrets that carry echoes from their past. They learn of a city haunted by daemons, of a desert said to hold the secret of Dust.

Powerful forces are about to throw Lyra and Malcolm together once again. And the dangers they face will challenge everything they thought they knew about the world, and about themselves.

PRAISE FOR THE BOOK OF DUST: LA BELLE SAUVAGE

"Too few things in our world are worth a seventeen year wait: The Book of Dust is one of them." --The Washington Post

"Reading this novel is like standing in a room in which suddenly all of the windows have blown open at once." --Slate

HIS DARK MATERIALS IS SOON TO BE AN HBO ORIGINAL SERIES STARRING DAFNE KEEN, RUTH WILSON, JAMES McAVOY, AND LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA!

About this title

About the Author

PHILIP PULLMAN is one of the most acclaimed writers working today. He is best known for the His Dark Materials trilogy, which has been named one of the top 100 novels of all time by Newsweek and one of the all-time greatest novels by Entertainment Weekly. He has also won many distinguished prizes, including the Carnegie Medal for The Golden Compass (and the reader-voted "Carnegie of Carnegies" for the best children's book of the past seventy years); the Whitbread (now Costa) Award; Parents' Choice Gold Awards; and the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, in honor of his body of work. Pullman was knighted for services to literature in the New Years' Honors in 2019.

Philip Pullman is the author of many other much-lauded novels. Three volumes related to His Dark Materials: Lyra's Oxford, Once Upon a Time in the North, and The Collectors. And a new trilogy set in the same world, The Book of Dust, which began with La Belle Sauvage. For younger readers: I Was a Rat!, Count Karlstein, Two Crafty Criminals, Spring-Heeled Jack, and The Scarecrow and His Servant. For older readers: the Sally Lockhart quartet (The Ruby in the Smoke, The Shadow in the North, The Tiger in the Well, and The Tin Princess), The White Mercedes, and The Broken Bridge.

Philip Pullman lives in Oxford, England. To learn more, please visit philip-pullman.com or follow him on Facebook at Philip Pullman author, and on Twitter at @PhilipPullman.

Review

“Skillfully weaves in deeper themes of change and of love's complexities, ruminations on the nature of evil, evidence of magical truths beneath reality's veneer.... Exhilarating.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Relish the chance to catch up with Lyra and return to her ever-expanding world.... A generation of fans is burning to reunite with Lyra for the first time since His Dark Materials, and this fall’s BBC/HBO adaptation of the series will only stoke the fire.” —Booklist

Edition details

• Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 2019
• ISBN 10: 0553510673
• ISBN 13: 9780553510676
• Binding: Library Binding
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 656