A desperate mother spirits away her infant son, seemingly drawn (chased, perhaps?) to the small English village of Thornyhill. She ends up on the doorstep of old Bartlemy, a curious man who has lived on the forested land for as long as anyone can remember — and who comes to believe that the child is destined for great things...

While growing up under Bartlemy's protective eye, Nathan Ward senses something else watching him, a shift of shadows in the surrounding Darkwood. Then pieces of his dreams begin to come to life. A man he saved from the ocean washes ashore on the television news. A greenish stone cup set with jewels that has haunted his visions sounds eerily like one lost by the Thorn family centuries ago — a cup that has recently made its way back into the hands of the village's last living ancestor.

Yet when Nathan learns the chalice may have come from another world, a land with bloodstained moons and a toxic sun, he knows he is destined to play a part in something beyond his most vivid imagination. But why is the cup here, and what could it possibly want with a teenage boy and a sleepy town of villagers full of tall tales? With the help of his best friend, Hazel, Nathan must figure out why he?s been chosen?and for what purpose. Even if it means traveling deeper each night into dreams, into lands, into legends that both terrify and mesmerize him.

The Greenstone Grail is the first novel of a thrilling new trilogy, tracing a boy's journey — a quest rife with magic, wonder, and forces as dark as midnight.

"British author Hemingway draws on classic mythology and her fertile imagination to create a refreshingly different Arthurian fantasy, the first in a trilogy about a contemporary grail quest involving many endearing, if occasionally trite and predictable, characters. Nathan Ward is just your typical 11-year-old of supernatural parentage, until he stumbles on a hidden altar that gives him visions of a green stone cup filled with blood. Soon he begins dreaming of Eos, a world that needs the grail for a spell to ward off a terrible plague. As the dreams become astral excursions, the grail surfaces in Nathan's world, but then is stolen and sent to Eos, at the wrong time and into the wrong hands. While Nathan goes to the rescue, his mother and the venerable grail guardian, Bartlemy Goodman, fend off the village witch, an antiques trader, police and a malevolent river spirit. Despite being almost self-consciously British, the book glows with a blend of ancient magic and wide-eyed wonder that should captivate audiences on both sides of the Atlantic, especially readers weary of more conventional Arthurian epics. Agent, Anthony Harwood. (Mar. 1) FYI: Under the pseudonym Jan Siegel, Hemingway is the author of Prospero's Children and other fantasies." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

"[B]eautifully written and intriguing....[The strong female protagonist] and Hemingway's folkloric expertise make it sheer good news that this book launches at least a trilogy." Booklist

"A promising start." Kirkus Reviews

The first novel in a new trilogy is a coming-of-age story tied to the lost Grail myth. It is the tale of young Nathan, and those who recognize his gift...people from other times and other worlds.

Amanda Hemingway has already lived through one lifetime — during which she traveled the world and supported herself through a variety of professions, including that of actress, barmaid, garage hand, laboratory assistant, journalist, and model. Her new life is devoted to her writing.