A Good Morning America Book Club Pick ""Astonishing and pristine, the kind of debut I love to be devastated by, already so assured and sophisticated that it's difficult to imagine where the author can go from here. It's simply a delight from start to finish."" - Amal El-mohtar, New York Times Book Review ""Follow where this novel leads and you will be lost in a bewitching spell, a book of magic about books of magic extraordinary."" -Marlon James. In this spellbinding debut novel, two estranged half-sisters tasked with guarding their family's library of magical books must work together to unravel a deadly secret at the heart of their collection - a tale of familial loyalty and betrayal, and the pursuit of magic and power. For generations, the Kalotay family has guarded a collection of ancient and rare books. Books that let a person walk through walls or manipulate the elements - books of magic that half-sisters Joanna and Esther have been raised to revere and protect. All magic comes with a price, though, and for years the sisters have been separated. Esther has fled to a remote base in Antarctica to escape the fate that killed her own mother, and Joanna's isolated herself in their family home in Vermont, devoting her life to the study of these cherished volumes.