Forests of the Heart is an enthralling voyage into the seamier side of urban magic. Returning to the familiar environs of Newford, where he sets so many of his modern myths, Charles de Lint introduces some of his most memorable characters yet.

The Gentry are ancient spirits of the land, sired in rape and born of woman in the Old Country. When the Irish immigrated to the New World, some of the Gentry came along. Generations later, having no real ties to their new home, they dream dark dreams of wresting the land surrounding Newford from the native manitou spirits. The Gentry's scheming and plotting draw some of the inhabitants of Newford into a dark and desperate fight against them and a primeval spirit, old as the earth itself but slumbering in la epoca del mito, the myth time.

Bettina, a curandera--or healer--is part Mexican and part Indian. She has recently moved to Newford from the deserts of the Southwest for reasons she can't understand. She lives in Kellygnow, an art colony perched on a hill overlooking Newford. Earning her keep as a model for the various artists who live and work there, she tries to apply her desert-learned skills and knowledge in the cold, forested surroundings.

Bettina's fellow Kellygnowians include Nuala, who seems slightly more spiritual than the average housekeeper; Ellie, a sculptor with a very special commission; and the Recluse, a mysterious figure who winters at Kellygnow in one of the outlying private cottages. Donal, an Irish-born malcontent who dreams of better times, joins them, along with Miki, his musician sister, and Tommy, a Native American accompanied by a few of his apparently innumerable aunts. The looming battle against a seemingly invincible foe draws them together and forces them to depend not only upon their skills and powers, but also on hope, trust, and love.

Blending aspects of different cultural legends and myths with his keen insight into human nature, Charles de Lint offers a truly incredible and compelling tale. His specialty is an intoxicating mix of real and fantasy worlds, and Forests of the Heart delivers a delicious punch. With his deft touch and sensitive style, de Lint's mastery of the urban fantasy tale and his ability as a great storyteller remain unchallenged. --Robert Gately


From Publishers Weekly
Irish fairies, Native American shape-changers and Africa's Anansi the Spider all meet up as de Lint (The Buffalo Man) weaves a new tale of urban magic, in which a diverse cast of characters learns that all the oldest myths are true. This comes as no surprise to Bettina San Miguel (a Mexican-Indian healer whose power comes from her father, a hawk-spirit), or to Tommy Raven (whose aunts back on the reservation were in regular contact with the spirit world). But Hunter Cole and Ellie Jones, who have never believed in anything supernatural, are shocked to learn that Ellie has enormous magical powers. Conversely, for Miki Greer, the revelation is a horrible confirmation of her Irish father's angry rantings--and a dangerous portent for her brother, Donal, who is involved with the violent "hard men" (displaced Irish spirits, also known as the Gentry and los lobos, looking for a home in America). The "hard men" want to summon a Green Man to fight the native spirits--and they want to use Donal's body to help them do it. Suddenly, the fictional city of Newford is crawling with magic--some hostile, some strangely appealing. And Bettina, Tommy, Hunter and Ellie must stop Donal before it's too late. A leisurely, intriguing expedition into the spirit world, studded with Spanish and Gaelic words and an impressive depth of imagination, de Lint's latest teems with music, danger and a touch of romance. (June) Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Despite her distance from the southwestern deserts of her childhood, Bettina San Miguel still remembers and practices the old ways taught her by her grandmother and recognizes the presence of the unseen world. Sculptor Ellie Jones does not believe in magic, but her work radiates power. Together with a few other gifted people who reside near the Canadian town of Newford, Bettina and Ellie learn the joys and dangers of crossing the barrier between the mundane world and the bright land of myth that lies just beyond the senses. Blending images from Celtic and Native American myth to create a unique vision of the relationship between artistic creation and the magical energies that permeate the world these characters inhabit, this latest Newford tale from de Lint (Somewhere To Be Flying) is an example of urban fantasy at its very best. Highly recommended. Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
In Ireland, they call them the Gentry--elemental spirits of the land; old, displaced, amoral gods who toy with humans whenever they choose. When the Irish emigrated to the New World, a few Gentry came, too. But there was no place for them; the new land had its own land-spirits, the manitous. Homeless, the Gentry turned hard, and when an ambitious human offers a way to claim a place of their own, their suppressed rage comes to a boil. To that volatile stew, add a New Mexican healer, a sculptor with extraordinary psychic gifts, a young musician and her angry brother, and a vaguely discontented music-store owner and his gen-X staff, and there is plenty to sustain de Lint's reputation as premier urban fantasist. In a horrific, quite filmic conclusion, all is finally set right, but it takes a fight between a corrupted version of the ancient Green Man and the elementals of North America to be accomplished. Sometimes wordy, especially about musical trends, this is, nonetheless, a great yarn. Patricia Monaghan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Review
"De Lint is a romantic; he believes in the great things, faith, hope, and charity (especially if love is included in the last), but he also believes in the power of magic--or at least the magic of fiction--to open our eyes to a larger world." --Edmonton Journal

"De Lint is a master of the modern urban folktale." --The Denver Post

"In De Lint's capable hands, modern fantasy becomes something other than escapism. It becomes folk song, the stuff of urban myth." --The Phoenix Gazette

"De Lint is as engaging a stylist as Stephen King, but considerably more inventive and ambitious." --Toronto Globe and Mail



Review
"De Lint is a romantic; he believes in the great things, faith, hope, and charity (especially if love is included in the last), but he also believes in the power of magic--or at least the magic of fiction--to open our eyes to a larger world." --Edmonton Journal

"De Lint is a master of the modern urban folktale." --The Denver Post

"In De Lint's capable hands, modern fantasy becomes something other than escapism. It becomes folk song, the stuff of urban myth." --The Phoenix Gazette

"De Lint is as engaging a stylist as Stephen King, but considerably more inventive and ambitious." --Toronto Globe and Mail



Book Description
In the Old Country, they called them the Gentry: ancient spirits of the land, magical, amoral, and dangerous. When the Irish emigrated to North America, some of the Gentry followed...only to find that the New World already had spirits of its own, called manitou and other such names by the Native tribes.

Now generations have passed, and the Irish have made homes in the new land, but the Gentry still wander homeless on the city streets. Gathering in the city shadows, they bide their time and dream of power. As their dreams grow harder, darker, fiercer, so do the Gentry themselves--appearing, to those with the sight to see them, as hard and dangerous men, invariably dressed in black.

Bettina can see the Gentry, and knows them for what they are. Part Indian, part Mexican, she was raised by her grandmother to understand the spirit world. Now she lives in Kellygnow, a massive old house run as an arts colony on the outskirts of Newford, a world away from the Southwestern desert of her youth. Outsider her nighttime window, she often spies the dark men, squatting in the snow, smoking, brooding, waiting. She calls them los lobos, the wolves, and stays clear of them--until the night one follows her to the woods, and takes her hand....

Ellie, an independent young sculptor, is another with magic in her blood, but she refuses to believe it, even though she, too, sees the dark men. A strange old woman has summoned Ellie to Kellygnow to create a mask for her based on an ancient Celtic artifact. It is the mask of the mythic Summer King--another thing Ellie does not believe in. Yet lack of belief won't dim the power of the mast, or its dreadful intent.

Donal, Ellie's former lover, comes from an Irish family and knows the truth at the heart of the old myths. He thinks he can use the mask and the "hard men" for his own purposes. And Donal's sister, Miki, a punk accordion player, stands on the other side of the Gentry's battle with the Native spirits of the land. She knows that more than her brother's soul is at stake. All of Newford is threatened, human and mythic beings alike.

Once again Charles de Lint weaves the mythic traditions of many cultures into a seamless cloth, bringing folklore, music, and unforgettable characters to life on modern city streets.



About the Author
Born in Holland in 1951, Charles de Lint grew up in Canada, with a few years off in Turkey, Lebanon, and Switzerland.

Although his first novel was 1984's The Riddle of the Wren, it was with Moonheart, published later that same year, that de Lint made his mark, and established him at the forefront of "urban fantasy," modern fantasy storytelling set on contemporary city streets. Moonheart was set in and around "Newford," an imaginary modern North American city, and many of de Lint's subsequent novels have been set in Newford as well, with a growing cast of characters who weave their way in and out of the stories. The Newford novels include Spirit Walk, Memory and Dream, Trader, Someplace To Be Flying, Forests of the Heart, The Onion Girl, and Spirits in the Wires. In addition, de Lint has published several collections of Newford short stories, including Moonlight and Vines, for which he won the World Fantasy Award. Among de Lint's many other novels are Mulengro, Jack the Giant-Killer, and The Little Country.

Married since 1980 to his fellow musician MaryAnn Harris, Charles de Lint lives in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

FROM OUR EDITORS

Charles de Lint's Newford is a fictional Canadian city in which the gritty realities of modern urban life rub up constantly against myth, magic, and the visible manifestations of the spirit world. Over the past ten years or so, Newford has become one of the most familiar -- and memorable -- landmarks in contemporary fantasy and has served as the setting for several novels -- among them Trader, Memory & Dream, and last year's World Fantasy Award nominee Someplace to be Flying -- and numerous short stories, most of which have been collected in Dreams Underfoot, Moonlight and Vines, and The Ivory and the Horn. In his latest novel, Forests of the Heart, de Lint once again returns to Newford and opens up another arcane corner of this singularly fascinating place.

Forests of the Heart concerns a territorial dispute between two groups of ancient spirits. At the heart of this dispute stand the Gentry, a violent, roving pack of wolf-like entities known, locally, as the Hard Men. The Gentry are a form of "genii loci" -- spirits of place -- who traveled from their Gaelic homeland to the new world, together with the first great wave of Irish immigrants. Upon their arrival, they discovered that the new continent already contained its own host of resident spirits: the Manitou, beings associated with the indigenous Native American cultures. Over time, the Gentry gained a tentative foothold in some of the larger cities but failed to establish territorial dominance. Forests of the Heart recounts their belated bid to displace the Manitou by invoking the aid of an ancient, sacrificial figure called the Green Man.

A number of Newford's mortal residents become embroiled in this struggle. Chief among them are Ellie Jones, a gifted sculptror with an untapped propensity for magic, and Donal Greer, an embittered, hard-drinking artist whose frustrated sense of entitlement leads him to a bizarre -- and tragic -- act of transformation. Early in the novel, Ellie accepts a commission to create a Green Man mask patterned after the broken halves of the original mask, which has been lost for years but has finally found its way to Newford. Before Ellie can complete her assignment, Donal steals the broken halves, puts them on, and finds himself transformed into a corrupt, murderous version of the Green Man known as the Glasduine. Fueled by Donal's own entrenched bitterness and rage, the Glasduine embarks on an odyssey of vengeance and destruction, an odyssey that leads from the streets of Newford to the adjacent realms of the spirit world. There, against a shifting, dream-like backdrop that de Lint evokes with effortless authority, Ellie and her assorted allies -- some human, some not -- find and subdue the Glasduine through the application of benign magic.

Forests of the Heart is not, to my mind, one of de Lint's very best novels. The climactic confrontation in the spirit world runs a bit too long, and one of the central subplots -- an evolving romance between a Mexican-American curandera (i.e., healer) and an otherworldly entity known as El Lobo -- is stilted and unconvincing. Nevertheless, de Lint's latest offers us a broad assemblage of his representative virtues, chief of which is the overriding sense of decency that animates this book. de Lint's bedrock belief in the importance of community, in the sacred properties of art, and in the absolute necessity of kindness and generosity give the best of his work a welcoming, morally attractive quality that lifts it well above the level of most traditional fantasies.

For me, though, the central appeal of Forests of the Heart is the opportunity to spend some time in Newford, one of the most fully developed settings in modern popular fiction. de Lint's easy familiarity with his imaginary community, particularly those bohemian enclaves populated by the marginalized citizens de Lint loves best -- the artists, musicians, street corner performers, and struggling proprietors of hole-in-the-wall music stores -- accounts, in large measure, for the enduring popularity of these interconnected novels and stories. Forests of the Heart will no doubt be required reading for those already familiar with Newford and environs. Familiarity, however, is not essential, and newcomers to Newford can regard this latest entry as an independent, thoroughly coherent point of entry into a humane, richly imagined fictional world.

--Bill Sheehan

FROM THE PUBLISHER

In the old century, they called them the Gentry: ancient spirits of the land, magical, amoral, and dangerous. When the Irish emigrated to North America, some of the Gentry followed...only to find that the New World already had spirits of its own, called manitou and other such names by the Native tribes.

Now generations have passed, and the Irish have made homes in the new land, but the Gentry still wander homeless on the city streets. Gathering in the city shadows, they bide their time and dream of power. As their dreams grow harder, darker, fiercer, so do the Gentry themselves -- appearing, to those with the sight to see them, as hard and dangerous men, invariably dressed in black.

Bettina can see the Gentry, and knows them for what they are. Part Indian, part Mexican, she was raised by her grandmother to understand the spirit world. Now she lives in Kellygnow, a massive old house run as an arts colony on the outskirts of Newford, a world away from the Southwestern desert of her youth. Outside her nighttime window, she often spies the dark men, squatting in the snow, smoking, brooding, waiting. She calls them los lobos, the wolves, and stays clear of them -- until the night one follows her to the woods, and takes her hand....

Ellie, and independent young sculptor, is another with magic in her blood, bus she refuses to believe it, even though she, too, sees the dark men. A strange old woman has summoned Ellie to Kellygnow to create a mask for her based on an ancient Celtic artifact. It is the mask of the mythic Summer King -- another thing that Ellie does not believe in. Yet lack of belief won't dim the power of the mask, or its dreadful intent.

Once again Charles de Lint weaves the mythic traditions of many cultures into a seamless cloth, bringing folklore, music, and unforgettable characters to life on modern city streets.

Charles de Lint and his wife, artist MaryAnn Harris, live in Ottawa, Ontario.

FROM THE CRITICS

Science Fiction Weekly

Forests of the Heart, with its vibrant characters and rich tapestry of mythology and spirituality, succeeds on many levels.

Publishers Weekly

Irish fairies, Native American shape-changers and Africa's Anansi the Spider all meet up as de Lint (The Buffalo Man) weaves a new tale of urban magic, in which a diverse cast of characters learns that all the oldest myths are true. This comes as no surprise to Bettina San Miguel (a Mexican-Indian healer whose power comes from her father, a hawk-spirit), or to Tommy Raven (whose aunts back on the reservation were in regular contact with the spirit world). But Hunter Cole and Ellie Jones, who have never believed in anything supernatural, are shocked to learn that Ellie has enormous magical powers. Conversely, for Miki Greer, the revelation is a horrible confirmation of her Irish father's angry rantings--and a dangerous portent for her brother, Donal, who is involved with the violent "hard men" (displaced Irish spirits, also known as the Gentry and los lobos, looking for a home in America). The "hard men" want to summon a Green Man to fight the native spirits--and they want to use Donal's body to help them do it. Suddenly, the fictional city of Newford is crawling with magic--some hostile, some strangely appealing. And Bettina, Tommy, Hunter and Ellie must stop Donal before it's too late. A leisurely, intriguing expedition into the spirit world, studded with Spanish and Gaelic words and an impressive depth of imagination, de Lint's latest teems with music, danger and a touch of romance. (June) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.|

VOYA

De Lint's powerful, magical novel features new characters in his beloved Newford setting. Bettina is transplanted from the Arizona desert, where her grandmother indoctrinated her into the ways of the spirit world, to Kellygnow, Newford's artist colony. She is able to see the Gentry, displaced spirits from the Old World who contend with the native spirits for territory. She is drawn into the surrounding circumstances when Musgrave Wood, a recluse who spends part of the year at Kellygnow, commissions Ellie, a sculptor who refuses to believe in magic, to reproduce a mask. What appears to be a challenging endeavor turns into a life-and-death battle with the Gentry, involving not only Ellie and Bettina but also many of Ellie's friends. Cheerful, waif-like Miki and her morose brother, Donal; Hunter, the self-insulated record store owner who is trying to get out of his box; and Tommy, Ellie's driving partner in her evening work tending to the homeless on the streets, all become caught up in the struggle. The characters are well realized with subtle dimensions to their flaws and strengths. De Lint sets his story against the background of an ice storm that immobilizes the city, lending a nightmarish cast to the action. The storm also contrasts sharply with Bettina's recollections of her desert home. By deftly interweaving the story lines, De Lint maintains a finely tuned dramatic tension. Central to the story is the perception that everyone carries within themselves their own "forests of the heart" in which they are most at home. This concept will not be lost on young adults, many of whom have already discovered this master of mythic fiction. VOYA CODES: 5Q 4P S A/YA (Hard to imagine itbeing any better written; Broad general YA appeal; Senior High, defined as grades 10 to 12; Adult and Young Adult). 2000, Tor, 400p, . Ages 16 to Adult. Reviewer: Donna Scanlon SOURCE: VOYA, April 2001 (Vol. 24, No.1)

KLIATT

This is the latest de Lint novel of Faerie and humanity, the world we know a nd the world we dream of. It is the story of five humans: Bettina, a Mexican/Indian magic practitioner; Miki and Donal, sister and brother with mystical connections to the Fey; Ellie, an artist chosen by the Fey to recreate an item of great power; and Tommy, a tough Native American youth trying to pull himself out of a downward spiral. The spirits and creatures native to North America battle to keep their place from the encroaching, alien Gentry—Fey that have traveled from Europe and covet the territories of the native spirits. Caught between two opposing groups of Fey, the five must choose sides in the coming battle. This is a nicely satisfying story in the typical de Lint fashion. Powerful imagery and blends of magic make it a successful fantasy. Some adult themes may make this of minimal interest to younger readers. KLIATT Codes: SA—Recommended for senior high school students, advanced students, and adults. 2000, Tor, 397p., $14.95. Ages 16 to adult. Reviewer: Susan Cromby; Acquisitions Dept., Mesa P.L., Mesa, AZ , November 2001 (Vol. 35, No. 6)

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