This novel begins in Prague, "city of alchemists and dreamers," in the dead of winter, with a young tattooed art student named Karou whose hair grows out of her head "pure as ultramarine straight from the paint tube." She fills her notebook with drawings of beauties, half human and half beast, and a cave where humans descend to sell teeth to a gnarled man. The man is her supernatural father, a cranky patriarch who rules the underworld, grants his adopted daughter new languages as birthday presents, and sends her on international teeth-collecting errands through portals emblazoned with black hand prints, during which she also tools around the Marrakesh spice market, or, say, returns with an original Anna Pavlova costume from a Parisian flea market for her best friend. When she is attacked by a man with "kohl-rimmed eyes" in a "sun-bronzed face," he, naturally, turns out to be both enemy and lover. Though star-crossed romances of the supernatural variety are not exactly in short supply, this one is steeped in atmosphere and wintry beauty.
