Armed with only an old encyclopedia, a Bible, and the complete works of Charles Dickens, the good citizens of Dingley Dell built an idyllic society based on a Victorian past. Beyond the Dell is the Outland, and beyond that, no one knows. Most residents live peacefully in their splendid isolation, content with being orphans in a forgotten world. For some, however, the Dell is too small and their curiosity about the Outland is too great. Those who leave are never heard from again.Until, that is, eleven–year-old troublemaker Newman Trimmers escapes from the valley to unmask the world beyond, setting off a series of events that may doom – or save – the entire Dinglian population. With unmatched literary wit and imaginative storytelling, Mark Dunn delivers the first contemporary Dickensian thriller and one of the most innovative books in years.

About Mark Dunn

Mark Dunn is the author of Ella Minnow Pea, Welcome to Higby, and Ibid published by MacAdam/Cage, and co-author with his wife, Mary, of United States Counties, a one-volume compendium of information on U.S. counties, published by McFarland & Company, Inc. He has also written twenty-five full-length plays, nine published in acting edition by Samuel French, Inc., Dramatists Play Service, and Dramatic Publishing Company. His work has been produced throughout the United States and Canada and in Hong Kong, Great Britain, and the Netherlands.

Dunn has received several awards for his work. His novel Ella Minnow Pea won the Borders Original Voices Book of the Year for fiction, was short-listed for Booksense Book of the Year, and was a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers pick.

Mark and Mary Dunn are among the founding board members of PULA: People United for Libraries in Africa, an organization devoted to building libraries throughout Africa.

Originally from Memphis, he now makes his home in New Mexico.