The Bone Clocks - Hardcover

David Mitchell

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0340921609 ISBN 13: 9780340921609

Publisher: Sceptre, 2014

Synopsis

Metaphysical thriller, meditation on mortality and chronicle of our self-devouring times, this is the kaleidoscopic new novel from the author of Cloud Atlas.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARDS UK AUTHOR OF THE YEAR 2014
LONGLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2014
LONGLISTED FOR THE FOLIO PRIZE 2015

One drowsy summer's day in 1984, teenage runaway Holly Sykes encounters a strange woman who offers a small kindness in exchange for 'asylum'. Decades will pass before Holly understands exactly what sort of asylum the woman was seeking . . .

The Bone Clocks follows the twists and turns of Holly's life from a scarred adolescence in Gravesend to old age on Ireland's Atlantic coast as Europe's oil supply dries up - a life not so far out of the ordinary, yet punctuated by flashes of precognition, visits from people who emerge from thin air and brief lapses in the laws of reality. For Holly Sykes - daughter, sister, mother, guardian - is also an unwitting player in a murderous feud played out in the shadows and margins of our world, and may prove to be its decisive weapon.

About this title

Review:

A globe-trotting, mind-bending, hair-raising triumph. (Guardian)

He is funny, hip and full of life. Which other writer could match his witty elision of fiction and science, of sense and nonsense? This beautiful explosion of adventurous ideas may well take him, finally, beyond the Booker shortlist. (The Times)

If only real life were as elegant and generally encouraging as a Mitchell novel! He writes with scintillating verve and abundance. (Daily Telegraph)

Every page fizzes with energy and humour. Wildly imaginative and truly magical, this is a big, chunky feast of a book. (Sunday Mirror)

Intellectually rigorous and stunningly imaginative . . . a rich and dense, inventive and witty thriller which, if you enjoyed Cloud Atlas and Mitchell's other works will leave you completely spellbound (Daily Express)

Dazzling. (New York Times)

Dazzling . . . Mitchell's heavy arsenal of talents is showcased in these pages: his symphonic imagination; his ventriloquist's ability to channel the voices of myriad characters from different time zones and cultures; his intuitive understanding of children and knack for capturing their solemnity and humor; and his ear for language - its rhythms, sounds and inflections. (Michiko Kakutani New York Times)

For its experimentation, humour, hybrid energy, and sheer narrative pleasure, The Bone Clocks compels admiration. (Evening Standard)

No one, clearly, has ever told Mitchell that the novel is dead. He writes with a furious intensity and slapped-awake vitality, with a delight in language and all the rabbit holes of experience (New York Times Book Review)

Mitchell's mesmerizing saga is evidence of the power of story to transport us, and even to stop time entirely. (Vanity Fair)

Book Description:

The dazzling new novel from the author of Cloud Atlas, at once the kaleidoscopic story of an unusual woman's life, a metaphysical thriller and a profound meditation on mortality and survival.

About this edition

• Publisher: Sceptre
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0340921609
• ISBN 13: 9780340921609
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 608