"Park ably uses religious symbolism, as well as mythical motifs of ancient Germanic people, demons, and even a dragon, in a story that is certainly not for the faint of heart ... A twisty, violent tale of a brutal legacy." - Kirkus Reviews

A demonic debt destroys Mark's family, until he grows up to face its collector, The Chicken Man.

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"So slowly, slowly she got up,

And slowly she came to him,

And all she said when she came there:

'Young man, I think you are dying.'"

Barbara Allen, traditional folk song

Mark is eleven years old the first time he meets the chicken man. A thin man with discolored fingernails, the chicken man tells Mark how to make people happy using an icepick and a metal hammer. Tap, tap, tap in through the eyes, until there are no more tears. As the snow in Kentucky melts from a mine fire deep underground, the chicken man collects a brutal debt that leaves Mark traumatized, until, with enough time, bourbon, and therapy, he convinces himself to forget it all.

And he does, for eighteen years.

Until, the chicken man returns. Then, from Kentucky to New York City to a German village, where a coal fire has been burning for three centuries, Mark discovers the dark truth about his family's debt and the flames that never go out.