General fiction

Stardust

by Neil Gaiman

248 pages · First published 1999

In the English village of Wall, young Tristran Thorn promises beautiful Victoria Forester that he will retrieve a fallen star to prove his love. Crossing the guarded wall takes him into Faerie, where the star is not the object he expected and where witches and royal heirs are pursuing it for purposes of their own. His romantic errand becomes a dangerous journey through magic, bargains, strange allies, and competing quests for youth and power. Written in the tradition of older English fairy tales, the novel follows Tristran as the thing he thinks he wants gives way to a much larger understanding of love, identity, and home.