From the multi award-winning and award-nominated Claire North comes a gorgeous and fiercely feminist retelling of the classic Greek myth of Penelope. It''s time for the woman of Ithaca to tell their tale . . .>
*** Featured in the Richard and Judy Book Club in 2014 *** *** Featured in the Waterstones Book Club in 2014*** *** Featured on BBC Radio 2 Book Club in 2014 *** Harry August is on his deathbed. Again.
No matter what he does or the decisions he makes, when death comes, Harry always returns to where he began, a child with all the knowledge of a life he has already lived a dozen times before. Nothing ever changes.
Until now.
As Harry nears the end of his eleventh life, a little girl appears at his bedside. 'I nearly missed you, Doctor August,' she says. 'I need to send a message.' This is the story of what Harry does next, and what he did before, and how he tries to save a past he cannot change and a future he cannot allow.
Claire North is a pseudonym for Catherine Webb, a Carnegie Medal-nominated author whose debut novel was written when she was just fourteen years old. She has fast established herself as one of the most powerful and imaginative voices in modern fiction. Her first book published under the Claire North pen name was The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August , which became a word-of-mouth bestseller and was shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke Award. The follow-up, Touch, was described by the Independent as 'little short of a masterpiece'. Her next novel The Sudden Appearance of Hope won the 2017 World Fantasy Award for Best Novel, and The End of the Day was shortlisted for the 2017 Sunday Times /PFD Young Writer of the Year Award. Her latest novel 84K received widespread critical acclaim and was described by bestselling author Emily St. John Mandel as 'an eerily plausible dystopian masterpiece'. She lives in London.
'AN EERILY PLAUSIBLE DYSTOPIAN MASTERPIECE' Emily St. John Mandel, author of STATION ELEVEN 'AN EXTRAORDINARY NOVEL . . . with echoes of The Handmaid's Tale ' Cory Doctorow *CLAIRE NORTH SHORTLISTED FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES /PFD YOUNG WRITER OF THE YEAR AWARD* From one of the most original new voices in modern fiction comes a startling vision of a world where you can get away with anything . . . Theo Miller knows the value of human life - to the very last penny. Working in the Criminal Audit Office, he assesses each crime that crosses his desk and makes sure the correct debt to society is paid in full. But when his ex-lover is killed, it's different. This is one death he can't let become merely an entry on a balance sheet. Because when the richest in the world are getting away with murder, sometimes the numbers just don't add up. From the award-winning Claire North comes an electrifying and provocative new novel which will resonate with readers around the world. Praise for Claire North: 'Poignant and intensely gripping' Guardian 'Little short of a masterpiece' Independent 'Ambitious, immensely humane and full of philosophical panache' Sunday Times 'One of the fiction highlights of the decade' Judy Finnigan, Richard and Judy Book Club
