After a shy and rather withdrawn eight-year-old begins receiving frightening supernatural images and messages, he learns about a family legacy which could be considered a curse or a rare gift.

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"Someone was walking behind him - a long way off - still hidden in a misty distance but coming closer and closer, holding out a hand lined with the map of another world..."

Barney is being haunted. But is he in danger? The insistent ghostly footsteps in his mind move ever closer while his sisters try to unravel the mystery. And as the supernatural events reach a tense climax, the family members learn some surprising things about themselves.

Entirely convincing, beautifully written, this quite outstanding novel has become a modern classic.

"...a psychological thriller alongside a tale of ghost and magic... The strange pictures of the mind invade with terrible clarity the ordinary geography of daily life" --The Times Literary Supplement

"A generous humour tempers the eerie thrills of this ingenious story" --Naomi Lewis, Observer

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Cover illustration by Alun Hood
This book is a winner of the Carnegie Medal.