What happens when a writer's imagination begins to change history itself? In the shadow-haunted world of Victorian London, Joseph Merrick, the legendary Elephant Man, finds himself caught in a terrifying mystery involving Jack the Ripper, strange visions, and forces beyond human understanding. Sheltered within the London Hospital, Merrick seeks refuge from a cruel world in books, dreams, and fantasies. But the boundaries between nightmare and reality are beginning to dissolve. More than a century later, a troubled novelist becomes obsessed with Merrick's extraordinary life, only to discover that his fictional creations may possess minds and destinies of their own. Blending historical fiction, Gothic horror, psychological suspense, and dark fantasy, Joseph is an unusual and haunting Victorian fairy tale about loneliness, obsession, the nature of reality, and the monsters that dwell within the human imagination. For readers fascinated by the Elephant Man, Jack the Ripper, Victorian London, and the darker traditions of Gothic literature. “Tom Baker found beauty in everything, even in the impossible.” — Nanda