Palimpsest

This is exquisitely gloriously beautiful. Valente manages to capture the seductive horror that faery used to have. She writes like a poet; and it's easy to just get completely caught up in her imagery. On one level this is a novel about the "otherland," that place where humans go at their peril, the land of faery, with all of its horror and seductiveness -- the way it has historically always drawn humans, lured them, but always at the most horrific costs. And on the other hand it is a novel about cities -- about this particular city of Palimpsest, but also all cities, exemplified in passing by New York, Rome, Kyoto, and San Francisco -- their mysterious roots, their layers, their fame and their reality. And both layers are wonderfully compelling and exciting and poetic and just glorious!