Everville

Everville

First US edition
Author	Clive Barker
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Series	The Art Trilogy
Genre	Fantasy novel
Publisher	HarperCollins
Publication date	October 27, 1994
Media type	Print (hardback)
Pages	697
ISBN
Preceded by	The Great and Secret Show

Everville is a novel by British author Clive Barker. It was released in 1994 and is the second in the "Book of the Art", but it also can be read alone. The first part of The Art Trilogy, The Great and Secret Show, was released in 1989.

Everville tells the story of a small town of the same name, from its creation to transformation over the years. Several characters populate the book, some from our world and others from Quiddity, the vast universe or afterlife hinted at in the first book of the series. Noteworthy characters include detective Harry D'Amour from previous Barker works (most notably his story "The Last Illusion") as well as a few from book one of the series.

Among several new characters, mentioned in passing or detail, are the 'Shu (small, squid-like beings who are described as "pieces of God"), Phoebe Cobb, a resident of the town who passionately loves Joe, a dark-skinned painter, and Seth, a gay teenager who can hear angels knocking from the other side of Heaven.

In 1848, an Irish immigrant named Maeve O'Connell is traveling west with her father and a group of others. Her father seeks to create the town of Everville, being inspired by a mysterious man named Buddenbaum and having been given a medallion similar to the one possessed by Jaffe in the Great and Secret Show. Maeve's father is scapegoated and murdered by the fanatics in the group but Maeve is saved by a winged creature named Coker. Disobeying his orders to not follow him, Maeve ends up disrupting a wedding ceremony of 2 warring families from Quiddity, leading to a large conflict and the death of most of the families. Coker and Maeve are about to head through a portal, called a neirica, which brought such beings to Earth from Quiddity, but the arrival of Buddenbaum disrupts things. As the neirica closes, Coker severs his wings to stay with Maeve. Only one of the beings from Quiddity remains, a creature named Noah.

The narrative then shifts to the present day, where Everville is about to hold its popular annual festival. A doctor's receptionist named Phoebe Cobb carried on an affair with a black painter named Joe Flicker. When caught by Phoebe's husband, a struggle ensues and her husband is accidentally killed, forcing Joe, who has a prior criminal record, to go on the run. Tesla Bombeck, whose head is also occupied by Raul, returns to Palomo Grove where she meets a young man named Lucien and his colleagues, who believe Fletcher has returned. Meanwhile, Grillo, who has been collecting strange stories from around the world in a database he calls "The Reef" comes across a report that makes him believe Tommy Ray is still alive. He reaches out to Howard and Jo-Beth, who are now married with a baby daughter, Amy. An attorney named Erwin Toothaker comes across a 30-year-old confession about the lynching of a strange family of three. His research leads him to the remains of the family's home where he finds Fletcher. Tesla meets up with and makes love to Lucien but the two argue and split up, spurned primarily by Raul. Fletcher drains the life out of Erwin, killing him. Erwin's spirit remains and sees him creating Lix, revealing that Fletcher is in fact Kissoon. Joe, fleeing to the hills near Everville, comes across Noah and the still present neirica to Quiddity. Noah convinces Joe to bring him through into Quiddity and promises him power. He introduces Joe to a squid-like creature called Zehraphushu ("Shu") which is believed to be a god-like being possessing a hive mind. Erwin's spirit is able to lead Tesla to his home where she meets and befriends Phoebe.