"My hands shook, turning the pages." The Times

"Only Rankin can light and photograph faces with such intensity and drama. I'm delighted with this vision of my story." Philip Pullman

The second volume in the ground-breaking His Dark Materialstrilogy, now with a breath-taking new cover creatively directed and photographed by the legendary Rankin.

"What is he? A friend, or an enemy?"

"He is a murderer."

Will has just killed a man. He's on the run.

His escape will take him far beyond his own world, to the eerie disquiet of a deserted city, and to a girl, Lyra. Her fate is strangely linked to his own, and together they must find the most powerful weapon in all the worlds...

• Rankin's lens has exquisitely captured the bond between character and daemon; the soul of the stories

• The His Dark Materialstrilogy is award-winning, internationally bestselling and a modern classic.

• Now a major BBC/HBO television series, with an all-star cast of Ruth Wilson, James McAvoy, Anne-Marie Duff and Lin-Manuel Miranda