✨ The Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage centers on Malcolm Polstead, an observant and quietly courageous eleven-year-old who works at his family’s inn near Oxford. When he discovers that baby Lyra—hidden away at a nearby priory—is at the center of a dangerous political and theological struggle, he becomes entangled with spies, scholars, and sinister agents of the oppressive Magisterium. As a catastrophic flood engulfs the region, Malcolm and the fierce Alice rescue Lyra and flee down a transformed, dreamlike river in Malcolm’s canoe, La Belle Sauvage. Their journey becomes a haunting blend of adventure and myth as they confront both human threats and otherworldly forces, fighting to protect the child who will one day shape the fate of their world.