Ryhope Wood holds ancient secrets and memories - from legend, history, real and believed - that take on physical form. Known as mythagos, they are unpredictable and dangerous . . . because they are versions of famous heroes and heroines changeable according to how we see and think about them.
The phenomenon ruined the Huxleys. Christian Huxley remembers it well. As a young boy, he watched his father's mythago obsession turn to madness and witnessed his mother's suicide after a terrifying raid by a horde of questing warriors who broke out of the wood and into their home.
Years later, now a young man exploring the wood in his father's wake, Christian again encounters the horde and makes an astonishing discovery that will lead him through a series of dangerous quests, a heart-wrenching love affair and the most difficult decision of his life. The ultimate prize: the Gates of Ivory and Horn, of truth and the lie . . . the gates through which he might bring his mother back to life.
