ISBN 0-553-28772-9 (US pbk),,, 0-553-40317-6 (UK pbk)

"In a strange, nightmarish post-holocaust world, an autistic girl and her long-lost brother undertake a harrowing journey toward an encounter that could change the course of human history". [publisher's bumpf, 1990]

"In the dark years after the rain of roses, two innocents seek each other amid the ruins of a once-great city: an autistic girl given speech by a mad experiment, and a beautiful youth drawn by the seductive vision of a green-eyed boy whose name is Death. Now they must take a harrowing journey across a poisoned garden filled with children who kill, beasts that speak, and dark gods that walk abroad. For they are destined to take part in a nightmare ritual of blood, a macabre masque that will unleash ancient powers and signal the end of human history." [jacket blurb, UK pbk, 1990]

"A compelling drama, a beautiful and terrifying vision of a world where science borders on magic". --Pat Murphy.

"A wonderful new talent that's ready to knock socks off the sf field." --George Alec Effinger.

"A considerable stylistic and imaginative accomplishment, as noteworthy in its way as Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale ." -- (in People ).

"How rare! A book at once elegant, serene, sensuous, and exciting." --Samuel R.Delany.

"A remarkably accomplished first novel; sensual, darkly resonant, finely imagined and very much itself." --William Gibson.

"Elizabeth Hand is already an important writer and may be destined for greatness. Her ability to portray abnormal states of consciousness is simply stunning." --Lewis Shiner.