The collectors
(Book)

In this darkly delicious sliver of a tale, Philip Pullman offers a glimpse of the enigmatic girl who will become the sinister Mrs. Coulter. On a cold winter's night, in a college in Oxford, two art collectors are settled before a fire, discussing the unusual pieces of art one has recently acquired. These pieces--a portrait of a striking young woman and a bronze sculpture of a fearsome monkey--are connected in mysterious, even improbable, ways. But neither could imagine that they are about to be caught in the crossfire of a story which has traveled through time . . . and across worlds. --Adapted from book jacket.