Lily

Lily's uncanny talent makes her scream horrifically on the morning of her 13th birthday when, in the opening pages, she kisses her father hello and has a vision of his death at the end of that very same day. Desperate for answers, Lily scurries off into the woods to the cottage of Baba Yaga, a cackling, child-devouring Hansel-and-Gretel-witch-like character with jagged fingernails and broken teeth. But she doesn't stay there long, and runs back home to learn of her father's fatal drowning.

Once she manages to digest the terror of this new "curse" and the realization that its origins directly correlate to her burgeoning womanhood, Lily becomes obsessed with suppressing it, not only from within herself, but also within the confines of the tiny fishing village where she lives. Desperate for a new start, her mother sweeps her away, across the rickety bridge connecting their village to the rest of the big, bright world they've never experienced.

From this point, Ford's fantastical journey blooms into an immersive road trip of grandiose proportions during which Lily confronts religious "miracle worker" Reverend Silas Everyman and his night-traveling evangelical circus, The Holy Gospel Caravan. When faced with the blind faith expected of them and wagonloads of empty promises, several characters impart the kind of wisdom that may come from the personal opinions of the author himself. When a pious woman sings out that Jesus is her king, Baba Yaga opines, "There's nothing so very special about a king." She retorts, "They die like any other man. Usually worse, because somehow they don't think it will ever happen to them. That's the fault of their mothers."

As the eccentric circus characters stomp in, filling out the novel with their colorful antics, curious backstories, and the hope of "salvation" at the Reverend's hand, Lily remains unconvinced, though she is desperate for him to erase the curse from deep inside her. Readers will soon become entranced by this dark, fanciful world as Lily navigates "the tangle of tents" where all manner of deceit, hope, disillusionment and wonder awaits just beyond the folds. When she meets a caged girl named Star, the heavens may have finally opened in Lily's favor.

Indonesian graphic artist Staven Anderson's evocative, bizarre, gothic illustrations accompany Ford's narrative with the perfect combination of moodiness and impeccably detailed creative expression. Ford's talent for character description is amazingly kaleidoscopic; readers will be able to visualize Baba Yaga's witchy appearance even without the drawings. "Her nose strived mightily to reach her chin, and crooked first to one side and then the other. The chin it came near to meeting was itself gloriously warted; her teeth were arranged like mossy stumps in a clearing." Come for the fantasy fairy tale, stay for the incredible characterization.

More than 20 years in the making, this rich, inventive, mystical fairy tale incorporates themes of adolescent confusion, self-discovery, puberty, and, perhaps most heavily, religious overlording, since Ford's own childhood was very much defined by Christianity. With this thrilling new adventure, Ford plumbs the bleak, grim, formidable roots and rinds of childhood allegories, and emerges with the kind of brilliant wizardry fans of fantasy fiction will devour in a single sitting.

A follow-up to "Lily" is forthcoming, and though it doesn't involve the same characters, it involves a boy and a mermaid. We can't wait.

"Lily, by Micahel Thomas Ford. Lethe Press. $15