From the brand new York Times bestselling writer of The Night Circus, a timeless love story occur a secret underground world-a host to pirates, painters, lovers, liars, and ships that sail upon a starless sea.

Zachary Ezra Rawlins is definitely a graduate student in Vermont when he discovers a secret book hidden in the stacks. As he becomes the web pages, entranced by tales of lovelorn prisoners, essential collectors, and nameless acolytes, he reads something unusual: a tale from his very own childhood. Bewildered by about The Starless Sea: A Book this inexplicable publication and desperate to make feeling of how his very own life had become documented, Zachary uncovers a series of clues-a bee, a key, and a sword-that lead him to a masquerade party in New York, to a secret membership, and through a doorway to an ancient library hidden significantly below the top of earth. What Zachary discovers in this curious place is more than only a buried house for books and their guardians-it is a place of lost cities and seas, fans who pass records under doorways and across period, and of stories whispered by the useless. Zachary learns of those who have sacrificed much to protect this realm, relinquishing their view and their tongues to preserve this archive, and in addition of those who are purpose on its damage. Together with Mirabel, a fierce, pink-haired protector of the place, and Dorian, a good looking, barefoot guy with shifting alliances, Zachary travels the twisting tunnels, darkened stairwells, crowded ballrooms, and sweetly soaked shores of the magical world, discovering his purpose-in both the mysterious reserve and in his own life.

Read by Dominic Hoffman, with a complete cast:

Dominic Hoffman reading the Zachary Ezra Rawlins story

Dion Graham reading the Sweet Sorrows storyline

Bahni Turpin reading excerpts from the Secret Diary of Katrina Hawkins

Fiona Hardingham reading The Ballad of Simon and Eleanor

Allan Corduner reading Fortunes and Fables

Jorjeana Marie reading Another place, another time