"Sophisticated and thought-provoking
... an urban fairy tale for grown-ups." --Avid Ashley
**GOLD MEDAL Winner
Global Ebook Awards, USA
**SILVER MEDAL Winner
Readers' Favorite International Book Award Contest, USA
**GOLD AWARD Winner
Literary Titan Book Awards, USA
**RED RIBBON Winner
The Wishing Shelf Awards, UK
**BEST BOOK WE'VE READ ALL YEAR Finalist
Read Freely, UK
History, mystery, contemporary romance and magic ... A whimsical tale about money and its unknown otherworldly origins.
It is midnight, and you are sleeping. I am here at the table with a candle at my elbow, penning the most difficult letter I have ever had to write.
They are coming for me. Samuel Withers saw them in the village...
ENGLAND 1767
Edward Lillibridge is writing a farewell letter to his son. The controversial reverend faces trial for heresy after revealing, in a book, the true beginnings of money.
FAST FORWARD TO 2008
...six months before the Global Financial Crisis rocks the economy. Lillibridge's Our True Ancient History-published under the guise of fiction-is out of print, available only at antiquarian bookshops and largely overlooked. Until now.
Rosetta Melki, an idealist whose dream of starting a worldwide charity has been all but crushed by her solo-parent struggles, is enchanted by Our True Ancient History. Lillibridge's tale about a gold-obsessed empire (and the sprites they oppress: elfin clan dwellers whose currency of choice is kindness) has evoked a memory Rosetta cannot explain.
Rosetta's website, built around the book group she started with friends, has kindled a constellation--both literal and virtual--of Lillibridge clubs. Their Sydney circle gathers fortnightly at her lamplit cottage-a vintage rental she found after escaping a terrifying intruder.
In a more affluent part of Sydney, finance executive Matthew Weissler (polished, successful, admired) has been questioning his slave-to-the-dollar existence a...