As girls, Julia and Cassandra played a game in which they entered the imaginary landscapes of Arthurian romance. Now, a man the sisters once both loved reenters their lives, drawing them into a game whose rules are far more intricate--and whose stakes are incalculably higher--than the one they played as children. "Byatt is a gifted observer, able to discern the exact details that bring whole worlds into being".--New York Times Book Review.
From the Booker Prize-winning author of Possession comes a disturbing novel portraying a sibling rivalry which compels us to reconsider the uses and misuses of imagination.

When they were little girls, Cassandra and Julia played a game in which they entered an alternate world modeled on the landscapes of Arthurian romance. Now the sisters are grown, and hostile strangers--until a figure from their past, a man they once both loved and suffered over, reenters their lives.