The second volume in the bestselling, ground-breaking Library Trilogy, following THE BOOK THAT WOULDN'T BURN.

We fight for the people we love. We fight for the ideas we want to be true.

Evar and Livira stand side by side and yet far beyond each other's reach. Evar is forced to flee the library, driven before an implacable foe. Livira, trapped in a ghost world, has to recover her book if she's to return to her life. While Evar's journey leads him outside into the vastness of a world he's never seen, Livira's destination lies deep inside her own writing, where she must wrestle with her stories in order to reclaim the volume in which they were written.

And all the while, the library quietly weaves thread to thread, bringing the scattered elements of Livira's old life – friends and foe alike – back together beneath new skies.

Long ago, a lie was told, and with the passing years it has grown and spread, a small push leading to a chain of desperate consequences. Now, as one edifice topples into the next with ever-growing violence, it threatens to break the world. The secret war that defines the library has chosen its champions and set them on the board. The time has come when they must fight for what they believe, or lose everything.

The Library Trilogy is about many things: adventure, discovery, and romance, but it's also a love letter to books and the places where they live. The focus is on one vast and timeless library, but the love expands to encompass smaller more personal collections, and bookshops of all shades too.

Mark Lawrence's THE BOOK THAT BROKE THE WORLD is a contemporary fantasy opera, filled with action and epic science fiction elements. The characters journey through space and their fight for what they believe in is a testament to the power of storytelling.

For fans of Anthony Ryan (The Wolf's Call), Joe Abercrombie (The Wisdom of Crowds), Brandon Sanderson (Defiant), John Gwynne (A Time of Dread), and Brent Weeks (The Black Prism).

HarperCollins 2024