LORD OF THE FLIES meets Stephen Donaldson in this first fantasy novel by an established mainstream author. Add a dash of Shakespeare and Mervyn Peake and this quest tale involving a group of courageous youngsters travelling the Scablands of Memphis in search of sanctuary strongly stands out from the cliched standards of quest fantasies in the post-Tolkien mode.
'Listen. The Sanctuary of the Redeemers is named after a damned lie for there is no redemption that goes on there and less sanctuary'. The Sanctuary of the Redeemers: vast, desolate, hopeless. Where children endure brutal cruelty and violence in the name of the One True Faith. Lost in the Sanctuary's huge maze of corridors is a boy: his age uncertain, his real name unknown. They call him Cale. He is strange and secretive, witty and charming - and violent. But when he opens the wrong door at the wrong time he witnesses an act so horrible he must flee, or die. The Redeemers will go to any lengths to get Cale back. Not because of the secret he has discovered. But because of a more terrifying secret that lies undiscovered in himself.
Paul Hoffman is the author of two previous novels, The Wisdom of Crocodiles (2000), which predicted the collapse of the world financial system, and The Golden Age of Censorship (2007), a black comedy based on his experiences as a film censor.
