THE UNLIKELY ESCAPE OF URIAH HEEP

A fun, fast-paced contemporary fantasy novel about a young scholar with the power to bring literary characters to life, perfect for readers of Jasper Fforde, The Magicians, Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, and The Invisible Library.

For his entire life, Charley Sutherland has concealed a magical ability he can't quite control: he can bring characters from books into the real world. When Charley was two, he learned to read. At three, he read Great Expectations for the first time. At four, he brought the Cat in the Hat to life in the family living room. His older brother, Rob - a young lawyer with a normal house, a normal fiancée, and an utterly normal life - hopes that this strange family secret will disappear with disuse, and he will be discharged from his life's duty of protecting Charley and the real world from each other.

But then, Charley accidentally reads out from David Copperfield a murderous Uriah Heep, who starts causing trouble in their city and making threats about destroying the world. As Rob and Charley investigate, their search takes them to a hidden Dickensian street populated entirely by literary characters, from Mr. Darcy (five of him, in fact) to the Scarlet Pimpernel.

Danger follows them, first in the form of the Hound of the Baskervilles - one not from Charley's imagination. There's someone else who shares Charley's powers and it's up to Charley and a reluctant Rob to stop them, before these characters tear apart the fabric of reality.

H. G. Parry has a Ph.D. in English literature and teaches at Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand. She has published a number of short stories; The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep is her debut novel.