The Secret Commonwealth: The Book of Dust Volume Two: From the world of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials - now a major BBC series (Hardback)
Philip Pullman (author), Chris Wormell (illustrator)Published: 03/10/2019

Arriving ahead of the BBC’s much-anticipated adaptation of His Dark Materials, the second chapter in Philip Pullman’s epic series, The Secret Commonwealth: The Book of Dust Volume Two, intertwines the stories of Lyra Silvertongue and Malcom Polstead as they face new and dangerous secrets. Journeying far from Oxford’s spires across the globe, this is an adventure like no other. A powerful story about the truths that underpin our world, the divisions that lie between love and responsibility and what it truly means to grow up.
A boy and a boat, a girl and her dæmon, their stories inextricably bound.
It is twenty years since the events of La Belle Sauvage: The Book of Dust Volume One unfolded and saw the baby Lyra Belacqua begin her life-changing journey.
It is seven years since readers left Lyra and the love of her young life, Will Parry, on a park bench in Oxford’s Botanic Gardens at the end of the ground-breaking, bestselling His Dark Materials sequence.
Now, in The Secret Commonwealth, we meet Lyra Silvertongue. And she is no longer a child...
The second volume of Sir Philip Pullman’s The Book of Dust sees Lyra, now twenty years old, and her dæmon Pantalaimon, forced to navigate their relationship in a way they could never have imagined, and drawn into the complex and dangerous factions a world that they had no idea existed.
Pulled along on his own journey too is Malcolm; once a boy with a boat and a mission to save a baby from the flood, now a man with a strong sense of duty and a desire to do what is right.
Theirs is a world at once familiar and extraordinary, and they must travel far beyond the edges of Oxford, across Europe and into Asia, in search for what is lost – a city haunted by dæmons, a secret at the heart of a desert, and the mystery of the elusive Dust.
The Secret Commonwealth is truly a book for our times; a powerful adventure and a thought-provoking look at what it is to understand yourself, to grow up and make sense of the world around you. This is storytelling at its very best from one of our greatest writers.
Not suitable for younger readers.
Publisher: Penguin Random House Children's UK
ISBN: 9780241373330
Number of pages: 704
Weight: 985 g
Dimensions: 240 x 162 x 57 mm
MEDIA REVIEWS
'Naturally reflects Lyra as a conflicted young adult, whose readers will have grown up with her' - The Financial Times
'Pullman's is a complex, multicultural world, the exotics not the moral ciphers that are so striking in children's fiction of the past.' - The Daily Telegraph
'He has created a fantasy world, made yet more satisfying in this new volume and pursued with his own special rigour and stylistic elegance. This is a book for getting older with.' - The Guardian
‘Lyra’s journey is not only to the ends of the earth but also to the hope of a restoration of the imagination, and the richness of the world.’ - Rev Richard Coles
'Engrossing storytelling and a vivid portrait of the often painful transition to adulthood and autonomy' - The Financial Times
Reviews for La Belle Sauvage: The Book of Dust Volume One
'Fans of His Dark Materials will find themselves joyfully immersed in a familiar world . . . meanwhile, awaiting first-time readers is all the pleasure of commencing their own journey into this most captivating of universes at the very beginning of Lyra's story.' - Independent
'No one else writes like Pullman . . . entirely worth the 17-year wait.' - Imogen Russell Williams, Metro
'A rich, imaginative, vividly characterised rite-of-passage tale.' - Nicolette Jones, The Sunday Times
'High-octane adventure accompanies ingenious plotting.' - The Times
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“A compelling masterpeice, beautiful and thought provoking.”
I was lucky enough to get my hands on a proof copy of this book...Oh my... where to start?
The Secret Commonwealth is a welcome return to old familiar faces, but not as we remember them. The weight of adulthood has...
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“An enthralling instalment in Lyra’s adventures”
I received an advance copy of The Secret Commonwealth from Penguin Random House - as a massive fan of Philip Pullman this was one of the greatest moments of my bookselling career so far.
When you love a series of...
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“Just what I've been waiting for”
I was lucky to get a proof copy of this and raced through it in a matter of days. This is exactly the installment I've been waiting for, beautifully written with amazing characters, I was so happy to be reunited... More
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