Young Octavian is being raised by a group of rational philosophers known only by numbers. After he opens a forbidden door he learns the hideous nature of their experiments and his own chilling role in them. Set in Revolutionary Boston, M.T. Anderson's mesmerizing novel takes place at a time when Patriots battled to win liberty while African slaves were entreated to risk their own lives for a freedom they would never claim. The first of two parts (volume two will be published in fall 2008), this deeply provocative novel reimagines the past as an eerie place that has startling resonance for readers today.

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