Hampden Ferrers is a “most ordinary village” on the outskirts of Oxford. Its history is rich in minor events, its church is one and a half thousand years old. And as soon as the villagers decide to celebrate the anniversary of this church, the village ceases to be “the most ordinary”: a series of gloomy, wonderful, unexpected, comic and mystical events take place in it. Love of unearthly power suddenly breaks out between the residents. There is a ghost in one of the houses. A werewolf donkey is discovered in an open field. The founder of the college rises from the waters of Oxford Lake. The heroes dream of an underground city of the dead - a mirror image of their village. The old story of a criminal priest gives rise to a terrible curse that threatens destruction to everyone who knows about it, and only scientific logic and understanding of the very foundations of the Universe save the inhabitants of the village from inevitable death. Brian Aldiss (b. 1925) is one of the largest figures in world science fiction literature , a multifaceted writer whose work has won the hearts of millions of fans. Before you is his new novel - a hymn of love for England, for otherness and for love as such.