It sounds like a fairy tale. He is a boy dressed in silks
and white wigs and given the finest of classical educations.
Raised by a group of rational philosophers known only by
numbers, the boy and his mother — a princess in exile from a
faraway land — are the only persons in their household
assigned names. As the boy's regal mother, Cassiopeia,
entertains the house scholars with her beauty and wit, young
Octavian begins to question the purpose behind his
guardians' fanatical studies. Only after he dares to open a
forbidden door does he learn the hideous nature of their
experiments — and his own chilling role in them. Set against
the disquiet of Revolutionary Boston, M. T. Anderson's
extraordinary novel takes place at a time when American
Patriots rioted and battled to win liberty while African
slaves were entreated to risk their lives for a freedom they
would never claim. The first of two parts, this deeply
provocative novel reimagines the past as an eerie place that
has startling resonance for readers today.
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