Hide Me Among the Graves: A Novel

by Tim Powers

Overview

From Last Call to On Stranger Tides to Declare to Three Days to Never, any book by the inimitable Tim Powers is a wonder. With Hide Me Among the Graves, it’s possible that the uniquely ingenious Powers has surpassed even himself. A breathtaking historical thriller in which art and the supernatural collide, Hide Me Among the Graves transports readers back to mid-19th century London and features a reformed ex-prostitute, a veterinarian, and the vampire ghost of Lord Byron’s onetime physician, uncle to poet Christina Rossetti and her brother, the painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti. A novel that, like all his others, is virtually impossible to pidgeonhole—or to resist—Hide Me Among the Graves is the taut, gripping, and utterly remarkable literary thrill ride that Tim Powers fans have been eagerly waiting for.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062210807
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	02/19/2013
Pages:	511
Product dimensions:	5.44(w) x 7.84(h) x 1.33(d)

About the Author

Tim Powers is the author of numerous novels including Hide Me Among the Graves, Three Days to Never, Declare, Last Call, and On Stranger Tides, which inspired the feature film Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. He has won the Philip K. Dick Memorial Award twice, and the World Fantasy Award three times. He lives in San Bernardino, California.

Editorial Reviews

[An] intense, downhill-race of a story . . . the summer sleeper hit of 2006.

Denver Post

[THREE DAYS TO NEVER] contains so many genuine pleasures . . . plenty of action, humor and unexpectedly touching human drama. . . . [a] welcoming entry point to [Powers’s] singular fictional universe.

San Francisco Chronicle

[I]nternational metaphysical intrigue involving time travel, Jewish mysticism, and Albert Einstein. . . . [I]t all somehow works in Powers’ wily storytelling logic. B+.

Entertainment Weekly

Almost despite its wonderful weirdness, this thriller moves at a frantic clip . . . [the] very outlandishness [of Powers’s metaphysics] makes the story all the more compelling.

Booklist

Endlessly inventive . . . You might finish this overstuffed novel still unsure about the connection between Einstein and astral projection, but if you give in to Powers’s imaginative leaps and relentless pacing you may find that a mere quibble.

New York Times Book Review

A writer of extraordinary imaginative powers.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

For those who have never read Powers before, THREE DAYS TO NEVER might be a welcoming entry point to his singlular fictional universe.

San Francisco Chronicle Book Review

Grade: A . . . Powers never fails to reward readers with fascinating and believable tales that take them just beyond the edges of reality. Combining historical fact, science-fiction and thriller pacing, THREE DAYS TO NEVER is worth the wait. . . . Savor THREE DAYS TO NEVER.

Rocky Mountain News

[A] breathtaking achievement, the complexity of which a review can only begin to capture...[A] powerful work.

Locus

In this fast-paced nail-biter... the breakneck pace and labyrinthine plot pull us through history, mythology, mystery, and horror with [Powers’] signature creative verve.

Booklist on HIDE ME AMONG THE GRAVES

It would be a serious mistake to dismiss Hide Me Among the Graves as something less than art....It’s a smart, exciting and perfectly constructed novel, and it’s hard as hell to put down.

NPR.org on HIDE ME AMONG THE GRAVES

[A] fine example of the work of a much-beloved author, and a spooky ride through Victorian London to boot....Powers’s work engages with something prerational that is buried deep, deep in our brains, and that won’t be bullied into submission by mere reason.

boingboing.com on HIDE ME AMONG THE GRAVES

The vampiric specter of John Polidori, who published the first work of vampire fiction in 1819 and died a probable suicide in 1821, haunts 1862 London in Powers’s stellar supernatural thriller, a sequel of sorts to 1989’s The Stress of Her Regard. In particular, Polidori menaces his nephew and niece, pre-Raphaelite artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti and his poetess sister, Christina, who turn for help to reformed prostitute Adelaide McKee; Adelaide’s veterinarian lover, John Crawford; and Edward John Trelawny, who, like Polidori, was a member of the Byron and Shelley circle. Polidori is plotting with other members of his ancient race, the Nephilim, to victimize not only the families to which they’re attached but the city’s entire populace. Powers works an impressively original variation on the vampire theme, and makes the Rossettis’ crusade extremely poignant through the revelation that they are their most creative only when under the vampire’s malignant influence. The meticulous attention to historical and literary detail grounds the story solidly in its period and enhances its imaginative reach. Agent: Russell Galen, Scovil Galen Ghosh Literary Agency. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

Powers's 1989 novel, The Stress of Her Regard, deals with Lord Byron, Percy Shelley, and an encounter with vampires. This time, it's the Rossettis—poet Christina and her artist brother, Dante Gabriel—who face the vampires. Algernon Charles Swinburne is here, too, but not as a good guy. In winter 1862, the revenant of Christina's uncle, the suicide John Polidori, returns to London to haunt her. Polidori seeks psychic union with an 1800-year-old vampire ghost. If he succeeds, destruction will rain down on London. The Rossettis join forces with an elderly veterinarian, his ex-prostitute wife, and their dauntless daughter to oppose Polidori. VERDICT In the course of this extravagant novel, the good guys confront vampire shape-shifters, a gruesome stillborn child, and the ghost of Dante's dead wife. They hold séances, engage in automatic writing, dig up bodies, and even consult a ghost trapped in the pickled body of a sea worm. The arcana are confusing at times, but the nonstop action of this diverting steampunk thriller will attract many readers.—David Keymer, Modesto, CA

Library Journal