When fifty-three-year-old Mississippi mechanic Earl Perkins pulls a strange metal box from a split pecan tree, he unwittingly unleashes an ancient force that awakens the Fair Folk—beautiful, terrible beings who've waited centuries to reclaim what was stolen from them. With the help of Gertrude Hattie, a foul-mouthed old woman commanding an army of forty-seven possums, Earl discovers he's the last in a line of "Keepers" tasked with guarding the gate between worlds. To save Gertrude from the Court of the Lost, this reluctant hero must journey through a magic mirror into a twilight realm where nothing is as it seems. A funny, human-hearted story about found family, unexpected courage, and why you should never underestimate a possum.
