La Belle Sauvage is the first volume in The Book of Dust trilogy and is a prequel to Pullman’s acclaimed His Dark Materials trilogy. The first installment in His Dark Materials, The Golden Compass (published under the title The Northern Lights in the United Kingdom), was published in 1995 and has since become one of the English language’s most celebrated fantasy series for young adults. It tells the story of the precocious 12-year-old Lyra Belacqua and her friend Will Parry as they journey through parallel worlds and fight against the oppressive Magisterium. The trilogy is a coming-of-age story that explores loss of innocence, the nature of consciousness, religious authority, and the power of love.

Both The Book of Dust trilogy and the His Dark Materials trilogy feature a unique, alternate reality home to the main characters. In this version of the reader’s world, all people have dæmons, an outward expression of one’s soul in the form of an animal. Dæmons, with few exceptions, are the opposite gender of their human companion. Dæmons, being an extension of the self, can speak and feel, and their senses are aligned with that of their human. When one is a child, their dæmon can shapeshift into any animal according to feeling or need.