It starts when Cal gets off the train at the wrong stop in the middle of the night, in the middle of nowhere. He's stranded. Following a muddy path leads him to a castle that appears to be deserted. But inside is Corbenic, a magnificent hotel filled with rich people preparing for a banquet&#8212and Cal is their guest of honor. During the meal, he experiences a disturbing vision, but when he is asked to talk about what he has seen, he denies it. What if he's becoming crazy, like his mother? When Cal wakes the next morning, the elegant castle turns out to be nothing more than an abandoned ruin. But something inside him has changed&#8212he now knows he needs to right the wrongs in his life. It will be a difficult journey, and if Cal achieves his goal, it will not be without cost. The first step&#8212he must return to Corbenic.

"Fisherreimagines the enigmatic castle of Grail legend as a roadside inn in this elegiac, mature modern fantasy. Young Cal is leaving his home and his alcoholic mother to stay with his uncle, but gets off the train at the wrong station. Walking through what some local fishermen call the Waste Land in search of a phone, he comes upon Castle Hotel Corbenic, its ominous 'vacancies' sign swinging in the wind. Alain Bron, the wheelchair-bound patron of the castle/hotel, befriends Cal, mumbling that Cal is 'the one.' Bron shows Cal the Holy Grail; only later, when he is back home with his uncle, does he learn the legend, which says if he were to ask Bron about what he saw, the king's wounds would be healed and the kingdom restored. But getting back to Corbenic proves difficult for, as he learns from a ratty man who turns out to be Merlin, 'it is not a place... it is a state of mind.' Fisher transposes genres to great effect; the opening chapters feel as much like the start of a horror movie as a fantasy tale, with a well-executed sense of dread and mystery. And in a masterful turn, Cal's relationship with his mother is fused with the Grail story into a completely surprising twist ending, one which casts a new, human light on all of the fantasy elements that came before it. Ages 12-up." Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Catherine Fisher's acclaimed works include Darkhenge, Snow-walker, and The Oracle Betrayed, which was a finalist for the Whitbread Children's Book Award. She lives in Newport, Wales.