"First published in New Zealand in slightly different form by Victoria University Press, Wellington, in 2019"--Title page verso.

Part one: Insects. A book with a light in its long perspective ; The muleskinner -- Part two: Fire. Matron of honour ; The library at Princes Gate, 1995 ; Documentary evidence ; The Bibliothèque Méjanes -- Part three: Light. The island of apples ; Norfolk ; Night in a tree ; The firestarter ; Nil by mouth ; Brutal --Part four: Damp. Failing kindness ; The pale lady ; The summer road ; The island of women ; Kernow's story ; Go to your gate ; Questions from the audience ; Green pressure -- Part five: Carelessness. Two graves ; Basil Cornick's screen test ; Mimir's well ; A Torah above the Torah ; Taken lightly ; Quarry House -- Part six Uncaring. The moot ; Call and response ; Purgatory ; Neve's story ; Tintern ; The folly -- Epilogue: One hundred years, eighty with good behaviour.

"The epic fantasy that's taking the world by storm--a bewitching story about a revenge killing, a mysterious scroll box that has survived centuries of fires, and the book that changed everything Taryn Cornick believes that the past--her sister's violent death, and her own ill-conceived revenge--is behind her, and she can get on with her life. She has written a successful book about the dangers that threaten libraries... but not all of the attention it brings her is good. Questions arise about a fire in the library at her grandparents' house and about the whereabouts of an ancient scroll box known as the Firestarter. A policeman, Jacob Berger, also has questions, about a cold case. Then a shadowy young man named Shift appears, forcing Taryn and Jacob toward a reckoning felt in more than one world. The Absolute Book is an epic fantasy with an intimate tone; one in which hidden treasures are recovered, wicked things resurface, dead sisters are a living force, and great beauty is born of lies and treachery. It is a book of journeys and returns, from contemporary England to a magical land of great beauty and peace but is founded on treachery, from New Zealand to Purgatory itself. Above all, it is a declaration of love for stories and the ways in which they shape our worlds"-- Provided by publisher.