Knopf has revealed the title of the first volume in Philip Pullman’s highly anticipated new trilogy, The Book of Dust, along with an excerpt. La Belle Sauvage will be released simultaneously in the U.S. and U.K. on October 19, with a first printing of 500,000 copies in the U.S. The book, which is billed as an “equel” to Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy, takes place 10 years before The Golden Compass.
Pullman said in a statement, “Who or what is La Belle Sauvage? She is a boat, a canoe to be precise, and her owner is a boy, Malcolm Polstead, the hero of this story whom we have seen in an earlier part of Lyra’s story (if we were paying attention. He only had a walk-on part there). The canoe is important in this part of The Book of Dust, because some of the story is set during a massive flood.”
The excerpt released today comes from chapter 10 of La Belle Sauvage and introduces the book’s protagonist, 11-year-old Malcolm Polstead and his dæmon, Asta. Readers learn that Lyra Belacqua is being sheltered from her father at Godstow Priory. The excerpt can also be read in special reissues of the His Dark Materials paperbacks, on sale May 30.
To date, The Golden Compass (1996) has sold more than 17.5 million copies in more than 40 languages. In anticipation of Pullman’s new trilogy, Knopf will launch the #PullmanBooks Worldwide Read-Along and “Crack the Compass” unlock campaign on June 6.
