Description:

The story begins when a lonely Wisconsin lighthouse keeper named Bridget Lederle rescues a strangely dressed man who has been shipwrecked on the shores of Lake Superior. The man, named Valin Kalami, claims to be a sorcerer from a magical realm called Isavalta and tells Bridget that she is destined to play a part in saving the parallel world and its people from destruction. After the enigmatic Valin tells her things about herself that no one else could possibly know, she agrees to accompany the sorcerer across the Land of Death and Spirit to Isavalta. Once there, she begins to learn much about the dangerous power struggle within the magic saturated realm -- and much more about herself. Fans of Zettel's science fiction novels should be pleasantly surprised with her excursion into the fantasy genre, which draws heavily on Chinese, Indian, and Russian folklore.