The Beginning Woods

Max was found abandoned as a baby in an Edinburgh bookshop and raised by loving adoptive parents. But he has never stopped wondering where he came from, and the question grows urgent when the world is gripped by the Vanishings, in which people simply disappear, leaving only their clothes behind. When the Vanishings strike close to home, Max sets out to find the truth about himself and to stop the spreading terror. His search leads him into the Beginning Woods, an ancient and enormous forest where dragons still live, where magic and science wage a long war, and where the answers he seeks are guarded by wonders and dangers beyond anything he imagined.