Grant Buday's new novel is an eccentric coming-of-age story that captures the late-Victorian fascination with ancient Egypt, auras, and the afterlife. Smart, stubborn, and forthright Pearl Greyland-Smith is nine years old when we first meet her, in 1882. She lives with her widowed mother, Florence, in Victoria's James Bay neighbourhood. Pearl's father was a Hussar who died in Afghanistan, or that's what Florence has always told...