Sent to a boarding school in Ancelstierre as a young child, Sabriel has had little experience with the random power of Free Magic or the Dead who refuse to stay dead in the Old Kingdom. But during her final semester, her father, the Abhorsen, goes missing, and Sabriel knows she must enter the Old Kingdom to find him. She soon finds companions in Mogget, a cat whose aloof manner barely conceals its malevolent spirit, and Touchstone, a young Charter Mage long imprisoned by magic, now free in body but still trapped by painful memories. As the three travel deep into the Old Kingdom, threats mount on all sides. And every step brings them closer to a battle that will pit them against the true forces of life and death—and bring Sabriel face-to-face with her own destiny. With Sabriel , the first installment in the Abhorsen trilogy, Garth Nix exploded onto the fantasy scene as a rising star, in a novel that takes readers to a world where the line between the living and the dead isn't always clear—and sometimes disappears altogether. “Rich, complex, involving, hard to put down, this first novel is excellent high fantasy.” (Publishers Weekly) “I think Garth Nix has created a really remarkable and persuasive world; and done it in the grand style of heroic romance-with some wonderful twists and turns. His Sabriel is a herione truly worthy of that role.” (Lloyd Alexanderm, author of The Black Cauldron) “By turns rousing, charming and slyly funny, Sabriel is an engaging tale that slays sexual sterotypes along with its monsters.” (San Francisco Chronicle) “Sabriel has a fast pace, drama, vivid descriptions, excitement and humour. Packs of putrefying zombies, too. What more could you want?” (Guardian Unlimited, Susan Price, author of The Sterkarm Handshake) “Sabriel is a winner, a fantasy that reads like realism. Here is a world with the same solidity and four dimensional authority as our own, created with invention, clarity, and intelligence. I congratulate Garth Nix. And I look forward to reading his next piece of work.” (Philip Pullman) Sent to a boarding school in Ancelstierre as a young child, Sabriel has had little experience with the random power of Free Magic or the Dead who refuse to stay dead in the Old Kingdom. But during her final semester, her father, the Abhorsen, goes missing, and Sabriel knows she must enter the Old Kingdom to find him. She soon finds companions in Mogget, a cat whose aloof manner barely conceals its malevolent spirit, and Touchstone, a young Charter Mage long imprisoned by magic, now free in body but still trapped by painful memories. As the three travel deep into the Old Kingdom, threats mount on all sides. And every step brings them closer to a battle that will pit them against the true forces of life and death—and bring Sabriel face-to-face with her own destiny. With Sabriel , the first installment in the Abhorsen trilogy, Garth Nix exploded onto the fantasy scene as a rising star, in a novel that takes readers to a world where the line between the living and the dead isn't always clear—and sometimes disappears altogether. Garth Nix was born in 1963 in Melbourne, Australia. A full-time writer since 2001, he has worked as a literary agent, marketing consultant, book editor, book publicist, book sales representative, bookseller, and part-time soldier in the Australian Army Reserve. Garth's books include the award-winning fantasy novels Sabriel , Lirael , and Abhorsen ; Clariel , a prequel in the Abhorsen series; the cult favorite teen science fiction novel Shade's Children ; and his critically acclaimed collection of short stories, To Hold the Bridge . His fantasy novels for younger readers include The Ragwitch , the six books of the Seventh Tower sequence, the Keys to the Kingdom series, and A Confusion of Princes . His books have appeared on the bestseller lists of the New York Times , Publishers Weekly , the Guardian , and the Australian , and his work has been translated in forty languages. He lives in Sydney, Australia, with his wife and two children.