As the winter solstice approaches, so does the final battle of an age-old war in this third novel of the landmark literary fantasy series.
The would-be historian and author Pierce Moffett has moved from New York to the Faraway Hills, where he seems to discover—or rediscover—a path into magic, past and present. Meanwhile, single mother Rosie Rasmussen grapples with her mysterious uncle's legacy and her young daughter Samantha’s inexplicable seizures. And for Pierce's lover Rose Ryder, another path unfolds: she’s drawn into a cult that promises to exorcise her demons.
It is the dark of the year, between Halloween and the winter solstice, and the gateway is open between the worlds of the living and the dead. A great cycle of time is ending, and Pierce and Rosie, Samantha and Rose Ryder must take sides in an epic conflict that is approaching its ultimate confrontation . . . Or is it?
Dæmonomania is a journey into the very mystery of existence: what is, what went before, and what could break through at any moment in our lives. It follows The Solitudes and Love & Sleep, both of which were included in Harold Bloom’s Western Canon.
John Crowley was born in the appropriately liminal town of Presque Isle, Maine, in 1942, his father then an officer in the US Army Air Corps. He grew up in Vermont, northeastern Kentucky and (for the longest stretch) Indiana, where he went to high school and college. He moved to New York City after college to make movies, and did find work in documentary films, an occupation he still pursues. He published his first novel (The Deep) in 1975, and his 14th volume of fiction (Lord Byron's Novel: The Evening Land) in 2005. Since 1993 he has taught creative writing at Yale University. In 1992 he received the Award in Literature from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. He finds it more gratifying that almost all his work is still in print.