THE TWO-HEADED RAVEN

About the Book

In 2020, the world seemed afflicted by a plague, not only medical but political. The Covid pandemic and the virulence and uncertainty in the United States political system felt apocalyptic. And maybe it was. Elliott Graves, a former college president and writer, is now a successful international consultant who works for companies opposed to the environmentalist movement. Unexpectedly, a huge two-headed raven lands on his driveway. It does not take long for him to realize that the raven is a visitor from another dimension, and overnight, Elliott is reluctantly transformed into a crusader. The country is in a low-grade civil war, and he gets dragged into a world of violence. As the events of the day unfold, he finds himself a part of them, but he is also pulled into another world where gods appear to be directing humans’ fate. He discovers that he is what they call an agüü, a being created by the supreme god to go between worlds, effecting the will of the gods. Elliott has no preparation for this, and as the two-headed raven drags him from city to city to right wrongs, he becomes a target for the government, which places his family in danger. Soon, he is fighting on three fronts—against the government, against the many creatures he discovers in the fugue world, and against a major company that seeks to make use of his powers. In all this, it is never entirely clear whether he is fighting for good or evil, or whether those categories even exist.

About the Author

Ronald A. Williams was born in Barbados and educated in the United States. As a result, his work engages both societies and the connections between them. His stories move seamlessly from the sandy Caribbean beaches to corporate boardrooms, and they always involve intrigue, adventure and romance. This is Ronald A. Williams’ ninth novel. One of the prior novels, The Dark Land, won the Prime Minister’s Prize and finished second in the Frank Collymore Literary Prize competition. A second novel, The Fall of Autumn Leaves finished first in the Frank Collymore prize competition. Williams’ novels are frequently set in the Caribbean and he engages the social issues that people of that region confront. He has also written a series of science fiction novels that engage issues of humanity’s evolution from planet Earth into the stars.