In Justice and Her Brothers, the first volume of this trilogy, the four protagonists find that they are inexorably linked through their supersensory powers. In Dustland, the second volume, these precursors of a new race are drawn into the future and make their strange journey into a barren land. In The Gathering they are engaged in battle with an entity known as Mal, who controls the future, but whose immense power has gone awry. One of the world's leading writers for young people brings her compelling saga to its stunning conclusion. "Virginia Hamilton has heightened the standards for children's literature as few other authors have. She does not address children or the state of children so much as she explores with them, sometimes ahead of them, the full possibilities of boundless imagination. Even her farthest-flung thoughts, however, are carefully leashed to the craft of writing." - Betsy Hearne, Twentieth Century Children's Writers