Enigmatic Pilot is Kris Saknussemm's outrageously brilliant yet profoundly moving exploration and excavation of the American dreamand nightmare. In 1844, in a still-young America, the first intimations of civil war are stirring throughout the land. In Zanesville, Ohio, the Sitturd familyHephaestus, a clubfooted inventor; his wife, Rapture, a Creole from the Sea Islands; and their prodigiously gifted six-year-old son, Lloyd, whose libido is as precocious as his intellectare forced to flee the only home they have ever known for an uncertain future in Texas, whence Hephaestus's half-brother, Micah, has sent them a mysterious invitation, promising riches and wonders too amazing to be entrusted to paper.Thus begins one of the most incredible American journeys since Huck Finn and Jim first pushed their raft into the Mississippi. Along the way, Lloyd will learn the intricacies of poker and murder, solve the problem of manned flight, findand losetrue love, and become swept up in an ancient struggle between two secret societies whose arcane dispute has shaped the world's past and threatens to reshape its future. Each side wants to use Lloyd against the other, but Lloyd has his own ideasand access to an occult technology as powerful as his imagination.From the Trade Paperback edition.