A howl into the void, a ghost story, and a bit of a metaphysical hellride.

A misanthropic ghostwriter roams an island off the Kenyan coast. An Arizona teenager awaits the next stage in a secretive covenant. A renowned poet retraces her past amid a baffling netherworld. An international arms dealer's son drifts through time, atoning for the death of the man he loved.

For readers who take their contemporary fiction with a tinge of the otherworldly, Bleeding Light is about mystical experiences, the symbolic fabric connecting us all, and desperate people seeking affirmation-through religious, cosmic, chemical and other means-of a world beyond their own. It's a grimly funny and often trippy take on transcendence in a hypercommodified age.

"A darkly gleaming marvel. Searing, creepy and mystical-as if Don DeLillo had set out to steal Paulo Coelho's flock."-Sean Michaels, Scotiabank Giller Prize winner and author of The Wagers