A figure had condensed out of the shuddering backdrop of the glare.

He is born in fire: a naked child in the blood-red flames of London’s Blitz. Miraculously saved but grotesquely burned, this mysterious orphan is named Matty. Doomed to a life of torment, he becomes a wanderer, a spiritual seeker after unknown redemption.

They are also lost children: neglected twins, as exquisitely beautiful as they are loveless and sinful. Toni explores political terrorism; Sophy, sexual dominance and violent criminality.

But their destinies will soon collide in an apocalyptic climax - one that illuminates the inner and outer darkness of modern humanity.

‘Exceptional … Irresistibly transcendent … Golding seduces us, transfixes, bewitches and confounds us.’ - Nicola Barker

‘The most powerful, and strangest, of all Golding’s novels, and one of the great masterpieces of the twentieth-century.’ - Philip Hensher

‘A master craftsman in [his] magic … Golding’s best book … Wonderfully creepy.’ - London Review of Books

‘A vision of elemental reality so vivid we seem to hallucinate the scenes … Magic.’ - NYTBR

‘One of the most moving books I’ve ever read.’ - The Times