The Hollowing: Robert Holdstock

Book IV of Mythago Wood. Alex Bradley, a highly imaginative child left brain damaged after a bizarre attack, vanished one day from his home. Months later, a body is found on the edge of Rhope Wood wherein live the mythagos - phantoms generated over time by the nightmares and dreams of men and women. Alex has in fact been absorbed by the wood, drawn through a 'hollowing' into its green heart. There his dreams will continue to populate to wood with his particular mythagos. But like Alex, they too are damaged: the great heroes he conjures are warped, incomplete and dangerous. Savage and lost, they are compelled to seek their creator. The havoc they wreak threatens those who search for Alex, including his father, Richard. In the end it will threaten the very existence of the wood itself and of its natural mythagos. Cover art by Geoff Taylor.