Philip Pullman’s
SECRETS
PHILIP PULLMAN’S THE SECRET COMMONWEALTH FAST-FORWARDS 10 YEARS AFTER THE END OF HIS DARK
Materials, the author’s beloved, HBO -bound fantasy trilogy that concluded in 2000. Yet while the origi-
nal series (which included best-selling novels like The Golden Compass) sent Lyra Silvertongue on
rip-roaring adventures across alternate dimensions, readers didn’t get much of a chance to explore her
own world. The Secret Commonwealth expands our view of the heroine (and Pullman’s remarkable world-
building) by introducing essential locations familiar to her, for fans to finally see. —Christian Holub
The Secret Commonwealth:
The Book of Dust Volume Two
philip pullman
—
10.3.2019
GENEVA
It’d been previously
established that
the church of Lyra’s
world, called the
Magisterium, was
headquartered in
Sweden. At last,
Pullman invites read-
ers inside. “I chose
Geneva because it
was one of the cen-
ters for Protestantism
in the Reformation,”
the author, 73, tells
EW. “The bit of history
that’s changed in
Lyra’s world is that
John Calvin became
Pope. So the center of
religion in Lyra’s world
is Geneva, but it’s a
different kind of Chris-
tianity. It’s Puritans,
who were a bloody
nuisance wherever
they turned up.”
LOP NOR
After Lyra learns of
a mysterious red
building out in the
Chinese desert,
where special roses
grow, she spends
much of the book
trying to get there.
“The starting point for
the red building and
roses was the name
Lop Nor, which is a
desert lake that wan-
ders about in western
China,” Pullman says.
“It’s that region, the
hidden place that’s
hard to reach and out
of sight. That’s what I
started with: What
goes on there?”
CONSTANTINOPLE
Lyra’s journey toward
Lop Nor takes her
through the Middle
East, plagued by
problems that have
resulted in a refugee
crisis much like our
own—albeit with
important differences.
“I haven’t spelled it
out, but the implica-
tion is that there was
never an Islam,”
Pullman says. “The
Ottoman Empire is
still in effect and, like
every other part of
the world, dominated
by the Magisterium.”
And as terrorists,
possibly linked to
the Magisterium,
emerge in the area?
Pure chaos.
EW ● COM NOVEMBER 2019 91
PULLMAN: MICHAEL LECKIE
