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Saint of Bright Doors

Shortlisted for the 2024 Hugo Award for Best Novel!

Published by Solaris
Distributed by Simon & Schuster

About The Book

Fetter was raised to kill, honed as a knife to cut down his sainted father. This gave him plenty to talk about in therapy.

He walked among invisible powers: devils and anti-gods that mock the mortal form. He learned a lethal catechism, lost his shadow, and gained a habit for secrecy. After a blood-soaked childhood, Fetter escaped his rural hometown for the big city, and fell into a broader world where divine destinies are a dime a dozen.

Everything in Luriat is more than it seems. Group therapy is recruitment for a revolutionary cadre. Junk email hints at the arrival of a god. Every door is laden with potential, and once closed may never open again. The city is scattered with Bright Doors, looming portals through which a cold wind blows. In this unknowable metropolis, Fetter will discover what kind of man he is, and his discovery will rewrite the world.

About The Author

Vajra Chandrasekera is from Colombo, Sri Lanka and is online at vajra.me. His debut novel The Saint of Bright Doors is nominated for the Nebula Award, won the Crawford Award, and was a New York Times Notable Book of 2023. His short fiction, anthologized in The Apex Book of World SF, The Gollancz Book of South Asian Science Fiction, and The Best Science Fiction of the Year among others, has been nominated for the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award. His second novel Rakesfall is out in 2024.

Product Details

  • Publisher: Solaris (June 6, 2024)
  • Length: 400 pages
  • ISBN13: 9781837863181

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Raves and Reviews

“The best book I’ve read all year. Protean, singular, original.” —Amal El-Mohtar for the New York Times

“A gorgeous blending of the mythic and the mundane.” –Erin Morgenstern, bestselling author of The Night Circus

“Riveting, surreal, clever and wise and all-too real — a breathtaking achievement.” —Max Gladstone, New York Times bestselling co-author of This Is How You Lose the Time War

“Chandrasekera builds a dizzyingly complex world, with enough ideas for 10 books, and it’s all entertaining enough that his theme — the dangers of religious extremism paired with racist totalitarianism — sneaks up on you.” The Washington Post

“… dreamlike and piercing in its emotional truth … hard to put down as it is to step out of a dream: and like a dream, even when it doesn’t make sense, it is true. What’s truly unbelievable is that this is someone’s first book.” New Scientist

“One of the most satisfying novels, in any genre, that I’ve encountered in quite some time.” Chicago Review of Books

“Inspired and dreamy book” The Wall Street Journal

Dreamlike and inventive, this unusual novel is a complicated read that ably pairs the mundane with the mystical.” ?Library Journal

“The biased, often violent, incomplete nature of history-telling will engage readers long after finishing.” ?Booklist

“A meandering meditation on mind-body duality, fanaticism, and eschatology that will appeal only to fans of the most cerebral fantasies.” ?Publishers Weekly

“Bold, compulsive, dazzling.” SFX, 5 star review

“An outstanding, genre-shattering work.” The Guardian

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