Returning in a gorgeous new paperback format: the astonishing first prose novel from the legendary Alan Moore — an epic yet intimate portrait of a single English town across the whole span of human history.

"Do not trust the tales, or the town, or even the man who tells the tales. Trust only the voice of the fire."— Neil Gaiman
"Alan Moore is the best and most innovative writer in graphic novels. I have been a huge admirer for years." — Michael Moorcock
"Alan takes genuine risks and justifies them: you feel, all the way, the rush of discovery; authorial privilege endangered by the savage voices he allows into his head." — Iain Sinclair
"A burning bush of a novel full of earthy wonder and wisdom, Voice of the Fire is a head-spinning trip down time’s sacred whirlpool." — Richard Gehr, Village Voice
"Part mythic cycle, part fictional history of Moore's hometown, part collection of fireside ghost stories, Voice of the Fire is as clever and well-crafted as Moore's other genre experiments, and by taking his dialogue out of word-balloons and panel arrangements, it gives his limitless literary ambition room to stretch out into new and fascinating forms." — Tasha Robinson, The A.V. Club
"A daring, unsettling work of literature." — Locus
"Remarkable, savage and, at times, unbearably beautiful." — Time Out

The precursor to Jerusalem.

In a story full of lust, madness, and ecstasy, we meet twelve distinctive characters that lived in the same region of central England over the span of six thousand years. Their narratives are woven together in patterns of recurring events, strange traditions, and uncanny visions. First, a cave-boy loses his mother, falls in love, and learns a deadly lesson. He is followed by an extraordinary cast of characters: a murderess who impersonates her victim, a fisherman who believes he has become a different species, a Roman emissary who realizes the bitter truth about the Empire, a crippled nun who is healed miraculously by a disturbing apparition, an old crusader whose faith is destroyed by witnessing the ultimate relic, two witches, lovers, who burn at the stake. Each interconnected tale traces a path in a journey of discovery of the secrets of the land.

Throughout, the image of the fire resonates between the tales, while Moore finds a different voice for each character – though most are inherently duplicitous in some manner, leading to a further commentary on the disparity between myth and reality, and which is more likely to endure over time.

Co-Published by Top Shelf Productions (USA) and Knockabout (UK).

With a new cover design by John Coulthart.

-- a 304-page prose novel, 5" x 8"