First published 1984
Chris Huxley returns to his family home beside Ryhope Wood in remote Britain after his father George's death in 1946. George had spent years studying the mysterious forest, a surviving fragment of the original woodland that covered the land since the Ice Age. Chris discovers his father's research notes and learns that his brother Steven has vanished into the wood, continuing their father's obsessive quest. The forest warps reality around the Huxley house. Ancient mythic figures from humanity's collective unconscious inhabit the wood as living beings. Chris encounters the beautiful huntress Mythago and follows her deeper into this primitive world. Steven has transformed into something savage and powerful, leading the dark mythago creatures who dwell in the forest's heart. Both brothers desire the huntress and the ultimate power that rules the wood's center. Chris must navigate this altered reality where the most ancient and dangerous monsters still reign, pursuing his beloved through a landscape where myth becomes flesh.
Genres: fiction, literary-fiction, fantasy, historical-fantasy
Vibes: atmospheric, dark, emotional, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Britain, Ryhope Wood
Period: 1946
288 pages · Hardcover · Gollancz
Content warnings: violence