Publisher, Simon & Schuster Audioworks (September 2001)

Listen to an MP3 audio clip.

2002 Audie Award Winner for 'Best Unabridged Fiction' Audiobook, presented by the Audio Publishers Association for excellence in audio publishing.

Comments about the printed edition:

"Extraordinary . . . Makes your hair stand on end." --The Washington Post

"A Classic . . . rare and dazzling." --New York Daily News

The printed book of this title was selected by The Reader's Catalog as one of the 40,000+ Best Books in Print!

To coincide with the publication of Stephen King and Peter Straub's extraordinary new thriller, BLACK HOUSE, here is the story that started it all.

On a brisk autumn day, a twelve-year-old boy stands on the shores of the gray Atlantic, near a silent amusement park and a fading ocean resort called the Alhambra. The past has driven Jack Sawyer here: his father is gone, his mother is dying, and the world no longer makes sense. But for Jack everything is about to change. For he has been chosen to make a journey back across America--and into another realm.

One of the most influential and heralded works of fantasy ever written, The Talisman is an extraordinary novel of loyalty, awakening, terror, and mystery. Jack Sawyer, on a desperate quest to save his mother's life, must search for a prize across an epic landscape of innocents and monsters, of incredible dangers and even more incredible truths. The prize is essential, but the journey means even more.

Let the quest begin. . . .

About the Authors:

Stephen King is the author of more than thirty books, all of them worldwide bestsellers. He lives in Bangor, Maine, with his wife, novelist Tabitha King.

Peter Straub is the author of fourteen novels, which have been translated into more than twenty languages.