The Secret Commonwealth (The Book of Dust, Book Two) (Signed)

Pullman, Philip

ISBN 10: 0241373336 / ISBN 13: 9780241373330

Published by David Pickling Books, London, UK, 2019

About this Item

First edition, first printing - Signed Special Edition with exclusive illustrations by Chris Wormell. Signed by Philip Pullman on the title page. 688, [2]pp. Red glittered black cloth-covered boards, red metallic titles on spine. Decorative endpapers. 8vo. Cloth a little pushed at spine ends. Upper text block edge lightly yellowed, with hint of spotting on other block edges. Gutter stretched at title page, perhaps by author as he signed otherwise neat, clean, bright and tight. Dust jacket has some light shelf wear and very slight rubbing at edges, a little bumped at spine ends. There is a sticker on the dust wrapper stating that this is a Signed Special Edition with exclusive illustrations by Chris Wormell. Dust wrapper in an archival-quality Mylar sleeve, fitted without the use of tape of adhesives. A promotional bookmark, giving a publication date of 3rd October 2019 for the book loosely laid in.

Seller Inventory # 009962

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Secret Commonwealth (The Book of Dust, Book Two) (Signed)
• Publisher: David Pickling Books, London, UK
• Publication Date: 2019
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0241373336
• ISBN 13: 9780241373330
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Wormell, Chris
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Near Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)
• Seller catalogs:
  • Children's Books - Fiction
  • Signed Books

About this title

Synopsis

It is twenty years since the events of La Belle Sauvage: The Book of Dust Volume One unfolded and saw the baby Lyra Belacqua begin her life-changing journey.

It is almost ten years since readers left Lyra and the love of her young life, Will Parry, on a park bench in Oxford's Botanic Gardens at the end of the ground-breaking, bestselling His Dark Materials sequence.

Now, in The Secret Commonwealth, we meet Lyra Silvertongue. And she is no longer a child . . .

The second volume of Philip Pullman's The Book of Dust sees Lyra, now twenty years old, and her daemon Pantalaimon, forced to navigate their relationship in a way they could never have imagined, and drawn into the complex and dangerous factions of a world that they had no idea existed. Pulled along on his own journey too is Malcolm; once a boy with a boat and a mission to save a baby from the flood, now a man with a strong sense of duty and a desire to do what is right.

Theirs is a world at once familiar and extraordinary, and they must travel far beyond the edges of Oxford, across Europe and into Asia, in search for what is lost - a city haunted by daemons, a secret at the heart of a desert, and the mystery of the elusive Dust.

The Secret Commonwealth is truly a book for our times; a powerful adventure and a thought-provoking look at what it is to understand yourself, to grow up and make sense of the world around you. This is storytelling at its very best from one of our greatest writers.
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Reviews for The Secret Commonwealth: The Book of Dust Volume Two:

"[Pullman] has created a fantasy world, made yet more satisfying in rigour and stylistic elegance. This is a book for getting older with" Guardian, Book of the Week

"The Secret Commonwealth is ablaze with light and life. The writing is exquisite; every sentence sings ... To read Pullman is to experience the world refreshed, aglow, in Technicolour" i

"Pullman's story is still thought-provoking ... This book elegantly weaves in live issues, from Europe's refugee crisis to facts in the post-truth era. And Pullman's prose is rewarding as ever" The Times

"A long, taxing, complex journey, laced with beauty, terror and philosophy" Metro

"As ever, Pullman's story is complex and vast but home to some of the finest storytelling in the 21st century. Revel in whole new worlds and enjoy one of literature's most wonderful heroines before she comes to HBO and the BBC" Stylist.co.uk

"Pullman is confronting readers with the horrors of our own world reflected back at us. In The Secret Commonwealth he creates a fearful symmetry" The Herald