The book opens with a bewildered young woman, Marina, who finds herself among a cast of legendary characters and fictional figures who are either the stars of great novels, or are in hungry pursuit of the great new novel to which to lend their eager countenance. The last thing Marina remembers she was on her way to Queens, when suddenly she finds herself on a park bench in conversation with a mercurial stranger, Roger Frommage. "You're in In The Beginning," he tells her, "a borough of dawns... of first lines where ideas arise... the land of promises." Roger takes Marina to a "Glorious Fuss," a party where she meets the most brilliant stars of the literary universe. But the gala evening has a ring of uncertainty about it, and Marina discovers that all is not right in this land of fresh starts. A committee of six- the immortals of literature- get together to discuss what has gone wrong with the world, their world, the world of readers. Is it television that's diverting their audience? Why are they not being called as often anymore? Marina cannot solve their problem. Only one person can and that person is Pearl!
Author
Ann Druyan (born June 13, 1949) is an American author and media producer known for her involvement in many projects aiming to popularize and explain science. She is probably best-known as the last wife of Carl Sagan, and co-author of the Cosmos series and book, along with Sagan and Steven Soter. In her writings, Druyan has stressed the idea that people can have a sense of awe and wonder about the unity of the cosmos without introducing the concept of a god. Druyan wrote the books Comet and Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, as well as sections of The Demon-Haunted World, with her late husband Carl Sagan. In addition, she wrote an introduction to The Cosmic Connection and the epilogue to Billions and Billions, both by Sagan. Alone, she wrote the novel A Famous Broken Heart. In the areas of film and television, she was one of the writers for the television series Cosmos, and a producer of the film Contact. Most recently, she is the CEO and a co-founder of Cosmos Studios. In 2007 she was said to be working on an IMAX film on global warming as well as a sequel to Cosmos. She has served on the Board of Directors of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) for over 10 years, and is also the current president of the NORML Foundation Board of Directors. Other projects that she has been involved in include the selection of the music on the Voyager Golden Record mounted on the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 space probes, and the Cosmos 1 spacecraft, which intended to demonstrate solar sail propulsion. The Cosmos 1 used a former Soviet submarine missile as a launch vehicle (in keeping with the "swords into plowshares" philosophy) but due to a malfunction in separation, the Cosmos 1 never reached stable orbit. In January 2007, she was a juror at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival in the jury responsible for selecting the winner of the Alfred P. Sloan Prize, given to films that focus on science and technology. She attended and was a speaker at the Beyond Belief symposium in November 2006.
