A family is hunted by a centuries-old monster: a man with a relentless obsession who can take on any identity.The String Diaries opens with a mother frantically driving through the night--her daughter asleep in the back seat, her husband bleeding out in the seat beside her. In the trunk of the car rests a cache of diaries dating back 200 years, tied and retied through generations with string.The diaries hold the secret to the man--or thing--that has finally found and attacked them. But how can you fight an enemy that you cannot recognize? How can you escape, let alone destroy, a beast when that beast can assume the likeness of anyone, even your gravely wounded husband? Your daughter? The family friend who has entrusted you with the string diaries themselves?The String Diaries is a sweeping thriller that extends from the present day, to Oxford in the 1970s, to Hungary at the turn of the 19th century, all tracing back to a boy from an ancient royal family--a boy who can change his shape, and make terrible things occur.