Every year on his birthday, Ned Dunston is cursed with visions of horrors committed by a savage figure he calls Mr. X. A dreadful premonition brings him home to find his mother on her deathbed. She reveals the never-before-disclosed name of his father and warns him of grave danger. Driven by a desperate sense of need, Ned explores his dark past and the astonishing legacy of his kin…

Born in Milwaukee, Peter Straub is the author of fourteen novels, which have been translated into more than twenty languages. He has won the British Fantasy Award, two Bram Stoker awards and two World Fantasy awards.