SACRAMENT

A boy has an encounter with a man who causes extinctions of other species, and as a result grows up to be a man who documents (and thus appeals for a halt to) those extinctions. This dark fantasy tale is unlike most of Clive Barker's work, being more tightly plotted, and more of this world. In a sequence of well-executed stories within stories (comparable to Russian dolls), Barker unfolds a compelling examination of what it means to be human, to be a man and, more specifically, to be a gay man on a planet where ageing, disease and death bring "the passing of things, of days and beasts and men he'd loved." A satisfying long novel packed with vivid images, memorable characters and a melancholy mood that reaches for hope.