Angelopolis: A Novel (Angelology Series)

Angelopolis: A Novel (Angelology Series)

"A stunning follow-up to the best-seller Angelology . . . Part historical novel, fantasy, love story, thriller, and mystery. . . It's a must-read." — Booklist   (starred review)   A New York Times bestseller and global sensation, Angelology unfurled a brilliant tapestry of myth and biblical lore on our present-day world and plunged two star-crossed heroes into an ancient battle against mankind’s greatest enemy: the fatally attractive angel-human hybrids known as the Nephilim. With Angelopolis, the conflict deepens into an inferno of danger and passion unbound. A decade has passed since Verlaine saw Evangeline alight from the Brooklyn Bridge, the sight of her new wings a betrayal that haunts him still. Now an elite angel hunter for the Society of Angelology, he pursues his mission with single-minded devotion: to capture, imprison, and eliminate her kind. But when Evangeline suddenly appears on a twilit Paris street, Verlaine finds her nature to be unlike any of the other creatures he so mercilessly pursues, casting him into a spiral of doubt and confusion that only grows when she is abducted before his eyes by a creature who has topped the society’s most-wanted list for more than a century. The ensuing chase drives Verlaine and his fellow angelologists from the shadows of the Eiffel Tower to the palaces of St. Petersburg and deep into the provinces of Siberia and the Black Sea coast, where the truth of Evangeline’s origins—as well as forces that could restore or annihilate them all—lie in wait. Conceived against an astonishing fresh tableau of history and science, Angelopolis plumbs Russia’s imperial past, modern genetics, and ancient depictions of that most potent angelic appearance—the Annunciation of Gabriel—in a high-octane tale of abduction, treasure seeking, and divine warfare as the fate of humanity once again hangs in the balance. Praise for Angelopolis : "[Trussoni] has created such a seductive alternative history that it easily puts anything Dan Brown has imagined to shame. Skillfully layering significant myths from before the Common Era into the narrative, [she] makes it hard not to believe that anything is and was possible." — Milwaukee Journal Sentinel A conversation between Danielle Trussoni and Justin Cronin, bestselling author of The Passage and The Twelve Justin Cronin: As novelists, both of us have chosen to blend the emphasis on character usually associated with literary writing with the plot-driven habits of commercial fiction.  I have to say, from my own experience, this is a real challenge.  What led you to take it up, and what do you make of these labels?  What does the word “genre” mean to you? Danielle Trussoni: Readers love books that take them somewhere, that teach them something about the world, that have characters that speak to them. At least, these are my favorite kinds of novels. And so when I’m reading, it is more important to feel engaged with the world of the book than to know exactly how it all works. Obviously, when I’m writing, the process is quite different. There is a technical balance between style, character, plot, description, etc. that I’m always aware of. But basically, I write the kinds of books I love to read. I try not to get too caught up in the idea that “literary” writing or “commercial” writing are on opposite sides of the spectrum. As a writer, it is important for me to have the freedom to move between styles and genres freely. The bottom line for me is that I write what I love, I write what moves me, and I write what I need to write to move forward artistically. The style and the subject matter are wholly secondary to these other motivations.   JC: We also share the fact that our most recent works are a major departure from our earlier books. Your first, the memoir Falling Through Earth , is seen by many as worlds apart in style, voice, and content from Angelology and Angelopolis .  How do you connect your work as a memoirist to these novels? Was your creative process the same?   DT: I heard a lecture by Kurt Vonnegut once where he said “Writing is a print-out of the soul.” It seems to me that this holds true even when a writer explores vastly different subjects and genres. The writing itself is a reflection of the writer’s particular voice and vision, and this is what remains fixed over the course of many books. My first book may be quite different in style and content from my novels—it was a memoir about my childhood with my father, who was a solider in the Vietnam War—but there is something very personal that marks it as my book. This is what makes the act of writing so mysterious: Whatever a writer may do to mask herself, she is still there, recognizable.   JC: When you began the writing of Angelology , did you conceive of it as the first in a suite of related novels? How does writing a sequel affect your artistic choices? Given that the characters and drama span more than one book, how do you find the sweet spot