Before he became a Phantom, he was simply Erik. Before he found the Opera, he wandered the world. In this companion novella to the love story of The Phantom Saga, Erik, the legendary Opera Ghost, tells the story of his life in his own words. Born deformed to a mother who despised him, the bastard son of a cruel noble, then sold into a freak show to perform as "The Living Death," Erik's Tale is one of tragedy and loss. But it is also the story of hope found in the darkest of moments through music and an unquenchable desire to survive. A wanderer in search of belonging, Erik journeys from the musical grandeur of Vienna and the debauchery of Carnivale in Venice to the mystic hills of Ireland and the dangerous underground of India. Erik searches for hope that his life can be more than ugliness and death, joining the commune of Paris and serving the paranoid Shah of Persia on a perilous journey marked by catastrophe, triumph...and love. Erik's Tale invites readers into the Phantom's life before the opera as it has never been portrayed, with diverse characters, surprising twists, rich historical detail, and heartbreaking romance.