From the Dust Returned

Ray Bradbury,America’s most beloved storytellerhas spent a lifetime carrying readers to exhilarating and dangerous placesfrom dark street comers in unfamiliar cities and towns to the edge of the universe. Nowin an extraordinary flight of the imagination a half-century in the makinghe takes us to a most wondrous destination: into the heart of an Eternal Family They have lived for centuries in a house of legend and mystery in upper Illinois — and they are not like other midwesterners. Rarely encountered in daylight hourstheir children are curious and wild; their old ones have survived since before the Sphinx first sank its paws deep in Egyptian sands. And some sleep in beds with lids. Now the house is being readied in anticipation of the gala homecoming that will gather together the farflung branches of this odd and remarkable family. In the past-midnight stillness can be detected the soft fluttering of Uncle Einars wings. From her realm of sleepCecythe fairest and most special daughtercan feel the approach of many a welcome being — shapeshiftertelepathsomnambulistvampire — as she flies high in the consciousness of bird and bat. But in the midst of eager anticipationa sense of doom pervades. For the world is changing. And deathno strangerwill always shadow this most singular family: Fatherarisen from the Earth; Motherwho never sleeps but dreams; A Thousand Times Great Grandm├⌐re; Grandfatherwho keeps the wildness of youth between his ears. And the boy whomore than anyonecarries the burden of time on his shoulders: Timothythe sad and different foundling son who must share it allrememberand tell…and whoalone out of all of themmust one day age and wither and die. By turns lyricalwistfulpoignantand chillingFrom the Dust Returned is the long-awaited new novel by the peerless Ray Bradbury — a book that will surely be numbered among his most enduring masterworks.