The Book of Dust: The Secret Commonwealth Book of Dust, Volume 2 - by Philip Pullman Paperback

About the Book

"The windows between the many worlds have been sealed and the momentous adventures of Lyra Silvertongue's youth are long behind her--or so she thought. Lyra is now a twenty-year-old undergraduate at St. Sophia's College and intrigue is swirling around her once more. Her daemon Pantalaimon is witness to a brutal murder, and the dying man entrusts them with secrets that carry echoes from their past. The more Lyra is drawn into these mysteries, the less she is sure of. Even the events of her own past come into question when she learns of Malcolm Polstead's role in bringing her to Jordan College. Now Lyra and Malcolm will travel far beyond the confines of Oxford, across Europe and into the Levant, searching for a city haunted by daemons, and a desert said to hold the truth of Dust. The dangers they face will challenge everything they thought they knew about the world, and about themselves."--

Book Synopsis

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - DON'T MISS THE EPIC FINALE TO THE BOOK OF DUST: THE ROSE FIELD, AVAILABLE NOW!

Return to the world of His Dark Materials and discover what comes next for Lyra, "one of fantasy's most indelible heroines" (The New York Times Magazine).

"A big novel full of big ideas, big characters, and big sorrows . . . This book feels like a response to the darkness in our time."--NPR

Lyra Silvertongue thought that the adventures of her youth were long behind her, but when her daemon, Pantalaimon, witnesses a brutal murder, they are suddenly caught up in crimes that carry unsettling echoes from their past.

But Lyra at twenty is very different from Lyra at thirteen. The lies she used to spin with ease no longer come, she and Pan are at odds, and her ability to trust--most of all in herself--has been shattered. On the run, Lyra finds a surprising new ally in Malcolm Polstead. Lyra and Malcolm will travel far beyond the confines of Oxford, across Europe and into the Levant, searching for a city haunted by daemons, and a desert said to hold the mystery of Dust.

To find the truth, Lyra will have to reconnect with the girl she once was and face dangers that will challenge everything she knows about her world.

Look for the entire trilogy of THE BOOK OF DUST:
La Belle Sauvage - The Secret Commonwealth - The Rose Field

And Lyra's adventures begin in HIS DARK MATERIALS:
The Golden Compass - The Subtle Knife - The Amber Spyglass

Review Quotes

"The Secret Commonwealth is a majestic return to Lyra's next chapter with all the magic, folklore, and fantasy only Philip Pullman can provide." -Hypable

"A big novel full of big ideas, big characters and big sorrows. . . This book feels like a response to the darkness of our time."--NPR

"Pullman's best novel so far. A work of extraordinary depth and humanity." --The Observer

"As always, Pullman's writing is simple, unpretentious, beautiful, true. . . . the conclusion to the Book of Dust can't come soon enough." --The Washington Post

"The novel gallops forward, full of danger, delight and surprise. Pullman is a staggeringly gifted storyteller." --New Statesman

"Engrossing."--Financial Times

"Exhilarating."--Kirkus Reviews

"Enthralling."--Readings

"Mr. Pullman's writing is clear, clean and forceful, never striving for effect and all the more effective because of it. He's also a man of ideas, which gives great savor to his work." - The Wall Street Journal

"Coming back to [Lyra] after all these years is such a profound pleasure that I can do nothing but sit back and watch her charge forward into the night, ready as she always was to remake the world in her own image."--Vox

"Profound and provocative." --Bulletin

"The Secret Commonwealth reasserts Pullman's affection for the wondrous and those pieces of reality which can be seen only by those willing to see."--Newsweek

"These books, and the intellectual debate they produce, make Lyra's world feel more lived-in than ever before." --Entertainment Weekly

"Not only is it worthy second installment in The Book of Dust trilogy, it continues to prove this sequence will be every bit as excellent as His Dark Materials." --Seattle Post-Intelligencer

About the Author

Philip Pullman is one of the most acclaimed writers working today. He is best known for the His Dark Materials trilogy (The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass), which has been named one of the top 100 novels of all time by Newsweek and one of the all-time greatest novels by Entertainment Weekly. He is also the author of another trilogy set in the same world, The Book of Dust (La Belle Sauvage, The Secret Commonwealth, and The Rose Field) as well as numerous other much-loved novels, a collection of fairy tales, and a volume of essays and speeches on writing. He has won many distinguished prizes, including the Carnegie Medal, the Whitbread (now Costa) Award, Parents' Choice Gold Awards, and the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award. Pullman was knighted for services to literature in the New Years Honours 2019. He lives in Oxford, England.