Abarat was published by Joanna Cotler Books (an imprint of HarperCollins) in 2002. Candy Quackenbush lives in Chickentown, Minnesota — a place so boring that its only distinction is a chicken-processing plant. One afternoon, she walks to the edge of town and discovers the Sea of Izabella, an impossible ocean that transports her to the Abarat — an archipelago of twenty-five islands, each fixed at a different hour of the day (and one at an extra hour, Twenty-Five O’Clock).
The Abarat is threatened by Christopher Carrion, the Lord of Midnight, who wants to extinguish all light and plunge the islands into permanent darkness. Candy, who possesses powers she does not yet understand, becomes the focus of a war between the forces of light and darkness that has been raging for centuries.
The novel is lavishly illustrated with over 100 of Barker’s oil paintings — vivid, surreal images that he produced over several years before writing the text. The paintings give the Abarat a visual reality that enhances the prose, and Barker’s skill as a painter (he trained at art school before turning to writing) is evident in every image. The Abarat is his most visually realized creation, and the paintings are as much a part of the work as the words.
Two sequels have appeared — Abarat: Days of Magic, Nights of War (2004) and Abarat: Absolute Midnight (2011) — with two more planned but not yet published.
Collecting Abarat
First edition (Joanna Cotler Books / HarperCollins, New York, 2002): Cloth binding, dust jacket, illustrated.
Market values:
- First edition, fine/fine: $20–$50
- Very good/very good: $10–$25
- Signed: $50–$150