Following an extremely painful tragedy, Lily Albrecht gives up writing books for the life of a rare book dealer. Dull, boring, and sexless, things aren’t all they’re cracked up to be until Lily gets a lead on a very rare book, The Book of the Most Precious Substance. Some say this 17th century manual on sex magic may be the most powerful occult book ever … if it’s even a real book.
Quite a few really rich people are willing to pay Lily a fortune to find the book.
From New York to New Orleans, Munich, and Paris, Lily searches the world where the richest people use black magic to satisfy their most forbidden desires.
Lily is faced with giving in to her desires or joining the rich occultists. She stands to lose it all searching for a ghost.
Why we’re excited about this book:
After publishing her second novel Come Closer, Sara Gran cemented her position as one of the most daring voices in modern horror fiction. The author of Saturn’s Return to New York, Dope, and the Claire DeWitt series (Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead, Claire DeWitt and the Bohemian Highway, The Infinite Blacktop) Gran has also written for television and film. With her latest, Gran returns to the occult, tapping into obsessive desire and our collective need to know if we go on. Paul Tremblay (Survivor Song, A Head Full of Ghosts) says: “Sara Gran’s The Book of the Most Precious Substance is a mix of book buying mystery, erotica, and a pinch of Clive Barkerian obsessive existential horror, but it’s all Gran. And it’s all brilliant.”, and Lauren Beukes (The Shining Girls, Broken Monsters) calls the book: “Extravagant, sexy and compelling. I loved it.”, and Publisher’s Weekly adds: “Gran perfectly captures the eccentric world of antiquarian bookselling while portraying a profound and magical reckoning with loss and the possibility of going on. She has outdone herself.“
Forthcoming 8 February 2022 from Dreamland Books, The Book of the Most Precious Substance by Sara Gran is available for pre-order now.
BOB PASTORELLA