Hollow City

Copyright © 2014 by Ransom Riggs

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Number: 2013914959

eISBN: 978-1-59474-620-8

Designed by Doogie Horner
Cover photograph courtesy of John Van Noate, Rex USA, and the Everett Collection
Production management by John J. McGurk

Quirk Books
215 Church St.
Philadelphia, PA 19106
quirkbooks.com

v3.1

FOR TAHEREH

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Epigraph

Part One

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Part Two

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

About the Photography

About the Author

Acknowledgments

And lo! towards us coming in a boat

An old man, grizzled with the hair of eld,

Moaning: “Woe unto you, debased souls!

Hope nevermore to look upon the heavens.

I come to lead you to the other shore;

Into eternal darkness; into fire and frost.

And thou, that yonder standest, living soul,

Withdraw from these people, who are dead!”

But he saw that I did not withdraw …

—Dante’s
Inferno
, Canto III

PECULIAR PERSONAE

J
ACOB
P
ORTMAN
Our hero, who can see and sense hollowgast

A
BRAHAM
P
ORTMAN

(
DECEASED
)
Jacob’s grandfather, killed by a hollowgast

E
MMA
B
LOOM
A girl who can make fire with her hands, formerly involved with Jacob’s grandfather

B
RONWYN
B
RUNTLEY
An unusually strong girl

M
ILLARD
N
ULLINGS
An invisible boy, scholar of all things peculiar

H
ORACE
S
OMNUSSON
A boy who suffers from premonitory visions and dreams

O
LIVE
A
BROHOLOS
E
LEPHANTA
A girl who is lighter than air