Nebula Award and Ursula K. Le Guin Prize-winning author Vajra Chandrasekera returns to fantasy with the story of Oro, cable repairman and unwilling demigod.

While repairing a telephone wire, Oro is struck by lightning. Mysterious symbols flood his brain: a flaming swan, a red half-moon, a key of bone, spilling ink. When he realizes the message is a potent threat to the ruling party of his city, he has to go underground, descending not only into the criminal underworld but into the endlessly unfolding fractal cities within the city.

As Oro travels ever further from his home, his wife, and his pursuers, he suffers the worst and most indignant fate imaginable. He becomes... a hero.

Oro's journey forces him to face beasts, gods, and monster-hunters, haunted by enslaved ghosts, his future self, and the wife who misses him. It's not easy for a hero to come home.