HIROMI GOTO was born in Chiba-ken, Japan, and immigrated to Canada with her family in 1969. Her first novel, Chorus of Mushrooms, examined the immigration experience and was the 1995 regional winner of the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book and co-winner of the Canada-Japan Book Award. She is also the author of a children's novel, The Water of Possibility, another adult novel, The Kappa Child, which was the 2001 recipient of the James Tiptree Jr., Award, the short story collection Hopeful Monsters, the Sunburst Award-winning Half World and, most recently, the acclaimed Darkest Light. Visit her at hiromigoto.com or on Twitter @hinganai.

Melanie Tamaki is an outsider. The only child of a loving but neglectful mother is just barely coping with school and with life. But everything changes on the day she returns home to find her mother is missing, lured back to Half World by the vindictive Mr. Glueskin. Soon Melanie begins an epic and darkly fantastical journey to save her parents. What she does not yet realize is that the future of the universe depends upon her success.