Inspired by Italo Calvino, Jeanette Winterson, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and the Uncanny X-Men, this surreal, darkly beautiful, and unsettling graphic novel about five wounded orphans is by turns hilarious and horrific, grotesque and tenderOn an unnaturally dark night, an unnaturally black dog took a baby from its cradle. Behave, child, or the same might happen to you!In a cruel and arbitrary world, where disturbing lapses in logic are commonplace, five orphans must face their traumatic origins. Gabriella is a crippled angel, haunted by her inability to interpret prophecies. Cur is the rabid leader of a sect of dogs, desperate to escape his inheritance. Cuckoo is a gambler with a wax face determined to find a fixed identity before his luck runs out. Magpie is a thief in search of the perfect photographic subject, but terrified of going blind. Crow is a leper trying to distill the essence of death as an antidote to dying. Each of them is deformed; each has a special ability; each is connected to all of the others. And each gets exactly what they deserve—or do they? This sumptuous, densely layered medieval-style illuminated novel features richly illustrated endpapers, a midsection of plates on vellum finish, and a red ribbon bookmark.