The new novel from the Booker shortlisted author ofThe Northern Clemency
An order is issued. A population may not meet, or touch or speak to each other. They stay inside, and the reality of a few streets in a capital city emerges. An underground river is discovered; an urban grove of pomeloes emerges. The imagination reaches out, and makes sense of the world. By the sea, two men walk into a future of uncertain violence.
There is time now to see the human dramas within a hundred yards (an abduction, a quiet breakdown, an outbreak of violence, a young mind beginning to stretch itself); to wait for the weather to change; to understand that what lies underneath this part of the city are seasonally wet pastures and woodlands.
Written in four parts, explores the strata and sediment of a single place and time. It shows what brings us together, through love, through the clashes of what we want to do and what the world wants to do with us. Set in a large crowded city where we are forbidden to approach strangers, this is about what we share: humanity, imagination, and the love that emerges from many acts of telling.To Battersea Park
âElectrifying ⊠works like this⊠allow the imagination to roam free and wildâObserver
âWise, ingenious and passionateâTLS
âMagnificently succeeds in excavating the sedimentary layers of a neighbourhood in lockdown to reveal â hilariously, tenderly, shockingly â how we exist both in intimacy and ignorance of those we live amongâFinancial Times
âAn engrossing human dramaâThe Times
âAn imaginative tour de forceâ Mick Herron, author ofBad Actors
âAn utterly engrossing skein of narratives, beautifully written and often disturbingâ Lissa Evans, author ofV for Victory
âA brilliantly conceived and audacious novel from one of our most consistently intelligent and beguiling writersâ William Boyd âSurefooted and emotionally generous ⊠A serious achievementâGuardian âMasterfulâTelegraph âA revelationâSpectator