The visionary creator of the Academy Award-winning Pan's Labyrinth and a Hammett Award-winning author bring their imaginations to this bold, epic novel about a horrifying battle between man and vampire that threatens all humanity. It is the first installment in a thrilling trilogy and an extraordinary international publishing event. The Strain They have always been here. Vampires. In secret and in darkness. Waiting. Now their time has come. In one week, Manhattan will be gone. In one month, the country. In two months—the world. A Boeing 777 arrives at JFK and is on its way across the tarmac, when it suddenly stops dead. All window shades are pulled down. All lights are out. All communication channels have gone quiet. Crews on the ground are lost for answers, but an alert goes out to the CDC. Dr. Eph Goodweather, head of their Canary project, a rapid-response team that investigates biological threats, gets the call and boards the plane. What he finds makes his blood run cold. In a pawnshop in Spanish Harlem, a former professor and survivor of the Holocaust named Abraham Setrakian knows something is happening. And he knows the time has come, that a war is brewing . . . So begins a battle of mammoth proportions as the vampiric virus that has infected New York begins to spill out into the streets. Eph, who is joined by Setrakian and a motley crew of fighters, must now find a way to stop the contagion and save his city—a city that includes his wife and son—before it is too late.
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The Strain Trilogy
2 books in catalog
Dark fantasy and gothic horror are reimagined through eerie fairy tales, monstrous symbology, and poetic encounters with the grotesque. Guillermo del Toro, born in Guadalajara, Mexico, in 1964, has created a distinct body of creative work across fiction and film, notably co-authoring the bestselling vampire novel The Strain alongside Chuck Hogan.
His literary output frequently bridges cinematic vision and prose narrative, expanding rich fantastical worlds into written books such as Pan's Labyrinth: The Labyrinth of the Faun, co-authored with Cornelia Funke.
Born in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, on October 9, 1964, del Toro developed an early fascination with macabre imagery after viewing the 1931 film Frankenstein as a young child. He began his professional career in filmmaking, makeup design, and special effects before expanding into published prose. In 2009, he co-authored The Strain with Chuck Hogan, initiating a trilogy that included The Fall (2010) and The Night Eternal (2011).
Del Toro continued collaborating with prominent authors across multiple genres, publishing the fantasy novel Trollhunters (2015) and The Shape of Water (2018) with Daniel Kraus, followed by The Hollow Ones (2020) with Hogan. His directorial and screenwriting work has garnered widespread acclaim, including Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Director for The Shape of Water, as well as Best Animated Feature for Pinocchio.
Central to del Toro's storytelling is a profound empathy for monsters, treating creature figures as complex symbols of power and innocence rather than simple antagonists. His writing blends classic gothic fiction, dark folklore, and visceral horror, frequently incorporating Catholic motifs, subterranean underworlds, and insect imagery. Across prose and visual media, his style emphasizes practical craft, dominant atmospheric lighting, and a celebration of human imperfection within terrifying environments.
