The Onion Girl

Book 0: Newford

by Charles de Lint

Genres: Urban Fantasy; Literary Fiction

Synopsis

In his stunning novels of magic and danger in the modern world, Charles de Lint has brought an entire imaginary North American city to vivid life: Newford, where magic lights the dark streets, myths walk clothed in modern shapes, and a broad cast of extraordinary people work to keep the whole world turning.

At the center of it all stands a young artist named Jilly Coppercorn, with her tangled hair and paint-splattered jeans, whose paintings capture the hidden beings that dwell in the city’s shadows.

Now, at last, de Lint tells Jilly’s own story; for behind the painter’s fey charm lies a dark secret that she’s labored to forget. “I’m the onion girl,” Jilly Coppercorn says. “Pull back the layers of my life, and you won’t find anything at the core. Just a broken child. A hollow girl. She’s very, very good at running—but the past has come to claim her now.”

A Blackstone Audio production.

Release date: August 3, 2002

Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates

Print pages: 508

Sample

Jilly

Newford, April 1999

Once upon a time…
I don't know what makes me turn. Some sixth sense, prickling the hairs at the nape of my neck, I guess. I see the headlights. They fill my world and I feel like a deer, trapped in their glare. I can't move. The car starts to swerve away from me, but it's already too late.
It's weird how everything falls into slow motion. There seems to be time to do anything and everything, and yet no time at all. I wait for my life to flash before my eyes, but all I get is those headlights bearing down on me.
There's the squeal of tires.
A rush of wind in my ears.
And then the impact.

Copyright © 2001 by Charles de Lint