Shriek : An Afterword

An epic yet personal look at several decades of life, love, and death in the imaginary city of Ambergris the Afterword relates the scandalous, heartbreaking, and horrifying secret history of two squabbling siblings and their confidantes, protectors, and enemies.
Erstwhile historian Duncan Shriek seemed destined for greatness after publishing Cinsorium: Dispelling the Myth of the Gray Caps, whose promise to reveal the inner lives of Ambergris's mysterious underground mushroom dwellers made it an instant bestseller. As fame turns to backlash and Duncan's fixation on the underground threatens to destroy him, it becomes clear that his destiny is inextricably joined with the destiny of the city.
Duncan's sister Janice Shriek irrevocably changed the face of Ambergrisian culture when her Gallery of Hidden Fascinations proclaimed its patronage of the New Art and became the arbiter of a genuine artistic renaissance. Janice finds, to her delight and dismay, that the life of an artist is fraught with more excesses than her body and mind can bear ... until a war between two rival publishing houses gives her the means to reinvent herself.
Literary wunderkind Mary Sabon discovered her love of history under the influence of Duncan's tutelage - and, eventually, his caresses - but went on to become one of Ambergris's most celebrated writers and a pillar of its society. But will her views on the mushroom dwellers' designs on the city inadvertently destroy the only force working to ensure the city's survival?
Part academic treatise, part tell-all biography, after this introduction to the Family Shriek, you'll never look at history in quite the same way again.