The Left-Handed Booksellers of London

Description

WINNER: 2021 ABIA Book of the Year for Older Children Eighteen-year-old art student Susan Arkshaw arrives in London in search of her father. But before she can question crime boss Frank Thringley he's turned to dust by the prick of a silver hatpin in the hands of the outrageously attractive Merlin. Merlin is one of the youngest members of a secret society of booksellers with magical powers who police the mythic Old World wherever it impinges on the New World - in addition to running several bookshops, of course! Merlin also has a quest of his own: to find the Old World entity who arranged the murder of his mother. Their investigations attract attention from enemies of the Old and New Worlds. Soon they become involved in an even more urgent task to recover the grail that is the source of the left-handed booksellers' power, before it is used to destroy the booksellers and rouse the hordes of the mythic past. As the search for the grail becomes strangely intertwined with both their quests, they start to wonder... Is Susan's long-lost father a bookseller, or something altogether more mysterious?

Garth Nix has been a full-time writer since 2001, but has also worked as a literary agent, marketing consultant, book editor, book publicist, book sales representative, bookseller, and as a part-time soldier in the Australian Army Reserve. Garth's books include the Old Kingdom fantasy series: Sabriel, Lirael, Abhorsen, Clariel, Goldenhand and Terciel and Elinor; SF novels Shade's Children and A Confusion of Princes; fantasy novels Angel Mage and The Left-Handed Booksellers of London; and a Regency romance with magic, Newt's Emerald. His novels for children include The Ragwitch; the six books of The Seventh Tower sequence; The Keys to the Kingdom series and Frogkisser! His short fiction includes more than 60 published stories, some of them collected in Across the Wall and To Hold the Bridge. He has co-written several books with Sean Williams, including the Troubletwisters series; Spirit Animals Book Three: Blood Ties; Have Sword, Will Travel; and Let Sleeping Dragons Lie. More than six million copies of Garth's books have been sold around the world, they have appeared on the bestseller lists of The New York Times, Publishers Weekly, The Bookseller and others, and his work has been translated into 42 languages. He has won multiple Aurealis Awards, the ABIA Award, Ditmar Award, the Mythopoeic Award, CBCA Honour Book, and has been shortlisted for the Locus Awards, the Shirley Jackson Award and others.

"A warm, whimsical delight--The Left-Handed Booksellers of London is a witty, clever adventure in an exquisitely detailed world you will love escaping into." --Veronica Roth, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Divergent series and the Carve the Mark series "This is my favorite kind of tale, one where the magic and the real nest together like pages in a book. A delightful read." --V.E. Schwab, #1 New York Times Bestselling author of the Shades of Magic series and the Monsters of Verity series "Readers will beg for more adventures in this London." -- Kirkus Reviews "Susan Arkshaw - 18, white-blonde buzz cut, Hendrix t-shirt - goes in search of the father she's never met, but things go awry when a hatpin-wielding, gender-fluid bookseller kills the one person who might hold the clue to his whereabouts. Set in London in 1983, this riveting urban fantasy delivers on all fronts: a magical, curious world brimming with nostalgia and references to the author's loves - ancient evil, books, reading, Susan Cooper, Tolkien, London taxis, incidental diversity. This is the book for anyone who has ever said "I don't read fantasy". Nix confirms that booksellers are extraordinary beings with special powers." -- Fran Atkinson, Sydney Morning Herald