From the Booker Prize–winning author of Possession, a dazzling new novel that spans the years from the Victorian era through World War I and centers around a famous children’s book author and the passions, betrayals, and secrets that tear apart the people she loves.When Olive Wellwood’s oldest son discovers a runaway named Philip sketching in the basement of the Victoria and Albert Museum—a boy who could be a character out of one of Olive’s magical tales—she takes him into the storybook world of her family and friends.But the midsummer bacchanals the Wellwoods host at their rambling country house—and the private books that Olive writes for each of her seven children—conceal more treachery and darkness than Philip has ever imagined. As these lives—of adults and children alike—unfold, lies are revealed, hearts are broken, and the damaging truth about the Wellwoods is slowly uncovered. Yet a far larger...