The Destroyer of Worlds

In Lovecraft Country, Matt Ruff introduced the Turners, a black family living in 1950s Chicago, and their twin struggles against the occult Order of the Ancient Dawn and the more mundane terrors of Jim Crow-era racism. In The Destroyer of Worlds, Ruff continues the story and explores the meaning of death, the hold of the past on the present, and the power of hope in the face of uncertainty. It is the summer of 1957. Korean War veteran Atticus Turner and his father, Montrose, travel to North Carolina to retrace their ancestor’s escape from slavery into the Great Dismal Swamp. But an encounter with an old nemesis turns their historical renactment into a life-and-death pursuit. Back in Chicago, Atticus’s uncle George fights for his own life. Diagnosed with cancer, he strikes a devil’s bargain with the ghost of Hiram Winthrop, who promises a miracle cure—but to receive it, George will first have to bring Winthrop back from the dead. Meanwhile, Atticus’s fifteen-year-old cousin Horace, reeling from the killing of a close friend, joins his mother, Hippolyta, and her friend Letitia Dandridge on a research trip to Nevada for The Safe Negro Travel Guide. But Hippolyta has a secret—and far more dangerous—agenda that will take her and Horace to the far end of the universe and bring a new threat home to Letitia’s doorstep. Hippolyta isn’t the only one keeping secrets. Letitia’s sister, Ruby, has been leading a double life as her white alter ego, Hillary Hyde. Now, the supply of magic potion she needs to transform herself is running out, and a surprise visitor throws her already tenuous situation into complete chaos. All these troubles are eclipsed by the return of Caleb Braithwhite. Stripped of his magic at the end of Lovecraft Country, he’s found a way back into power and is ready to pick up where he left off. But first he’s got a score to settle…

In his novel Lovecraft Country, the basis for the celebrated HBO series, Matt Ruff introduced us to the Turners, a black family living in 1950s Chicago, and their twin struggles against the occult Order of the Ancient Dawn and the more mundane terrors of Jim Crow-era racism. Now, in The Destroyer of Worlds, Ruff continues the story and explores the meaning of death, the hold of the past on the present, and the power of hope in the face of uncertainty. It is the summer of 1957. Korean War veteran Atticus Turner and his father, Montrose, travel to North Carolina to retrace their ancestor’s escape from slavery into the Great Dismal Swamp. But an encounter with an old nemesis turns their historical renactment into a life-and-death pursuit. Back in Chicago, Atticus’s uncle George fights for his own life. Diagnosed with cancer, he strikes a devil’s bargain with the ghost of Hiram Winthrop, who promises a miracle cure—but to receive it, George will first have to bring Winthrop back from the dead. Meanwhile, Atticus’s fifteen-year-old cousin Horace, reeling from the killing of a close friend, joins his mother, Hippolyta, and her friend Letitia Dandridge on a research trip to Nevada for The Safe Negro Travel Guide. But Hippolyta has a secret—and far more dangerous—agenda that will take her and Horace to the far end of the universe and bring a new threat home to Letitia’s doorstep. Hippolyta isn’t the only one keeping secrets. Letitia’s sister, Ruby, has been leading a double life as her white alter ego, Hillary Hyde. Now, the supply of magic potion she needs to transform herself is running out, and a surprise visitor throws her already tenuous situation into complete chaos. All these troubles are eclipsed by the return of Caleb Braithwhite. Stripped of his magic at the end of Lovecraft Country, he’s found a way back into power and is ready to pick up where he left off. But first he’s got a score to settle…