It was bought by this new imprint from Simon & Schuster called Gallery Books. There will be a sequel : The Reckoning.
It is already sold to Longanesi in Italy, Proszynski Media in Poland, Novo Conceito in Brazil, Random House Mondadori in Spain, In Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary and Russia.
We enjoyed it very much. It’s a very plot filled and rollicking yarn sort of supernatural novel which is a mash up of “Interview with a Vampire” and “The Historian” as well as “Let the Right One In”, “Picture of Dorian Gray” and all sorts of Gothic romances. The idea of having the characters be immortals (and not vampires) worked very well. Their eternal youth robs them of wisdom, or at least, impedes the begetting of it. The book is definitely gripping and immersive, very commercial and fun.
The story
Luke, a burnt out doctor in modern day Maine, comes across a very young woman accused of murdering a man in the woods-she is to be examined for her mental state. But while he is looking after her she tells him (and gives him proof) of her existence as an immortal, and that she did kill a man in the woods, but it was not murder. He helps her escape from the hospital and goes with her to Canada, and during their road trip, she tells him the events of her life.
Lanny was once a young girl in 18th century Maine, and the childhood friend of Jonathan, who was marginally older-the most beautiful youth imaginable, and the great love of her life. She conspired to cause the death of his sweetheart, who was pregnant with his child, and then herself became pregnant by Jonathan, who though he loved things about Lanny, never was in love with her. Lanny is sent by her family to Boston to have her baby, but is caught up before she ever arrives at the Home for Unwed Mothers. She is instead brought into the household of Adair, a charismatic and manipulative figure who is immortal. He takes her as a mistress into his house, which is filled with his ex-lovers and concubines, all of whom he holds under a control and to whom he has granted immortality. Lanny joins him in this harem, and soon discovers the delights of his sensual and very bohemian world. Adair is some sort of nobleman, possibly of Eastern European descent (though it’s never really made clear) and he tells Lanny of how he was one a poor peasant boy apprenticed to an evil alchemist, and how the alchemist corrupted him. He gradually found a way to have the alchemist destroyed, after having taken some of the alchemist’s enduring life potion. He has travelled since, having taken over the land and properties of the alchemist. Lanny is frightened by the story, but also fascinated. The others in the household are all flawed characters whom he has picked up along the way, and she wonders what wayward element within herself he is drawn to.
All the time, though, she is thinking about Jonathan, whom she knows is still back in their home village. She makes the mistake of telling one of Adrian’s minions about Jonathan, and soon she is sent to the village to bring him back. She finds him married with a child, but also in the thrall of a mistress. His incredible beauty causes women to chase him and he gives in-he is an intelligent man, the heir to a large fortune in the form of land and a lumber mill, but his tomcatting ways in the village catch up with him and he is shot by the jealous husband of one of his lovers. Lanny is present when the crime happens, and having stolen a vial of the elixir from Adair, administers some to Jonathan. She now has him in her power as Adair had her, but more importantly, he must flee the village, too, and goes to live with Adair in the household. Adair falls victim to his charms very quickly, and begins granting him great favours. Jonathan’s weakness is that he cannot help but be adored, and he is never constant in his love. Lanny watches helplessly as Jonathan takes to city life. But she also deduces that Adair is not the peasant boy who took the position of the evil alchemist but the alchemist himself, who had taken over the body of his handsome apprentice, and who is now aiming to do the same with Jonathan’s body. Jonathan is the perfect vessel and also much more acceptable in his looks to the American aesthetic. Adair is about to re-invent himself. He has already begun transferring funds into the name of Jonathan, and Lanny realises she does not have much time before she loses Jonathan forever. She drugs Adair so heavily that she and Jonathan can tie him up securely, and then they carry him down to the deepest cellar in the house. Jonathan walls him up inside the cellar, chained and gagged. Then they run away. But all that they have done in their lives weighs too heavily on them and after some time together they finally separate, each aware the other is still alive, but not maintaining contact. Meanwhile over the centuries Adair is chained in a concrete cellar, not dead but not really living-punished for his sadism and cruelty, his minions having fled. Lanny buys Adair’s house and rents it to an undertaker’s.
Lanny has told all this to Luke, and confesses that she has taken a number of lovers over the years, but as they age and grow old, she moves on. She has several terrible flaws, chief among them being a survivor of the highest calibre. She has compassion for others, but never to the point that it impedes her own decisions or needs. And in fact Jonathan had finally tired of life, after having lost a woman he truly loved, and after having in all the centuries matured into a medical doctor, a life saving surgeon in Africa, and a man who wants to atone. He begged Lanny to kill him, as she alone, as the administering agent of the elixir, has the power to kill him. She does do it, but it breaks her heart. And that is when she met Luke.
At the end she realises that she must also atone for her actions and begins returning the many precious objects she had collected over the decades in her travels, and begins to see a way to live a different life. She goes out for haircut, preparing to begin a new life with Luke (for however long it may last) as Luke notices a letter from her solicitor in Boston who deals with the house where Adair is entombed…
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