Voyages in the Underworld of Orpheus Black - Hardcover

by Marcus Sedgwick (Author), Julian Sedgwick (Author), Alexis Deacon (Illustrator)

Harry Black is lost between the world of war and the land of myth in this illustrated novel that transports the tale of Orpheus to World War II-era London.

Brothers Marcus and Julian Sedgwick team up to pen this haunting tale of another pair of brothers, caught between life and death in World War II. Harry Black, a conscientious objector, artist, and firefighter battling the blazes of German bombing in London in 1944, wakes in the hospital to news that his soldier brother, Ellis, has been killed. In the delirium of his wounded state, Harry's mind begins to blur the distinctions between the reality of war-torn London, the fiction of his unpublished sci-fi novel, and the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. Driven by visions of Ellis still alive and a sense of poetic inevitability, Harry sets off on a search for his brother that will lead him deep into the city's Underworld. With otherworldly paintings by Alexis Deacon depicting Harry's surreal descent further into the depths of hell, this eerily beautiful blend of prose, verse, and illustration delves into love, loyalty, and the unbreakable bonds of brotherhood as it builds to a fierce indictment of mechanized warfare.

Author Biography

Marcus Sedgwick (1968-2022) was the author of many celebrated novels for young adults, including the Michael L Printz award winning Midwinterblood. He was also shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal, the Edgar Allan Poe Award, the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize and was twice nominated for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award.

Julian Sedgwick is a writer of many books for children, including the Mysterium trilogy, the Ghosts of Shanghai trilogy, and the graphic novel Dark Satanic Mills, cowritten with his brother, Marcus Sedgwick, and illustrated by John Higgins and Marc Olivent. Julian Sedgwick lives in England.

Alexis Deacon is the author of A Place to Call Home, Cheese Belongs to You!, and I Am Henry Finch, all illustrated by Viviane Schwarz. He is also an acclaimed artist and the illustrator of Jim's Lion and Soonchild by Russell Hoban. Alexis Deacon lives in London.