The Library of Traumatic Memory
Will be published approx. on 11. February 2027
Book
Paperback/Softback
336 pages
978-1-0359-2328-1 (ISBN)
Description
The first literary science fiction novel from Neil Jordan, visionary director of The Company of Wolves and Interview with the Vampire
In a windswept corner of a forgotten peninsula, love and loss echo through the halls of a mansion built on secrets. Here memory is currency of the future, and the past refuses to stay buried.
In the year 2084, Christian Cartwright, a quiet librarian at the enigmatic Huxley Institute, spends his days archiving the world's most painful memories in the Library of Traumatic Memory.
But when his lover Isolde dies in a mysterious car crash, Christian secretly resurrects her as a digital consciousness - an act of grief, obsession, and defiance.
As Christian navigates a world where memories can be edited, dreams harvested, and the dead made to speak, he uncovers a deeper conspiracy buried in the Institute's foundations - one that stretches back centuries to his 18th-century ancestor Montagu Cartwright, the architect of the Huxley Mansion.
Montagu's obsidian mirror and copper model may hold the key to a reality where architecture shapes fate and time loops back on itself.
Blending gothic mystery, speculative science, and philosophical depth, The Library of Traumatic Memory is a haunting meditation on love, loss, and the ethics of memory.
As the past and future collide, Christian must decide what it means to remember - and what it costs to forget.
In a windswept corner of a forgotten peninsula, love and loss echo through the halls of a mansion built on secrets. Here memory is currency of the future, and the past refuses to stay buried.
In the year 2084, Christian Cartwright, a quiet librarian at the enigmatic Huxley Institute, spends his days archiving the world's most painful memories in the Library of Traumatic Memory.
But when his lover Isolde dies in a mysterious car crash, Christian secretly resurrects her as a digital consciousness - an act of grief, obsession, and defiance.
As Christian navigates a world where memories can be edited, dreams harvested, and the dead made to speak, he uncovers a deeper conspiracy buried in the Institute's foundations - one that stretches back centuries to his 18th-century ancestor Montagu Cartwright, the architect of the Huxley Mansion.
Montagu's obsidian mirror and copper model may hold the key to a reality where architecture shapes fate and time loops back on itself.
Blending gothic mystery, speculative science, and philosophical depth, The Library of Traumatic Memory is a haunting meditation on love, loss, and the ethics of memory.
As the past and future collide, Christian must decide what it means to remember - and what it costs to forget.
Reviews / Votes
Lyrically written, brimming with ideas, sometimes sinister and often humorous, it's an enchanting read * The Guardian * Not the work of a literary author merely holidaying in the speculative, as sometimes happens, but, by contrast, that of a writer who understands genre and has chosen an appropriate palette for a specific set of contemporary anxieties * Irish Times * In Alan Garner territory: an intense and complex story where the keening echoes of the past resonate down the centuries * Daily Mail * Let's be clear: this is a remarkable science fiction book. It's a book you immediately want to read again when you've finished it, because it's clear a second pass will reveal hitherto unnoticed details, ideas and resonances * SFX * Heartbreaking and hilarious... Angela Carter meets de Selby meets James Stephens meets Bram Stoker meets Alice coming back through the mirror * Paula Meehan, for RTE * As head-scratching as all this is, Jordan's creative talents allow him to entertainingly carry it off and pose some interesting questions along that way * Sunday Independent (Ireland) * A smart book but it wears that intelligence very lightly, always aiming for the reader's heart as much as the head * The Big Issue * Jordan is as fearless an author as he's visionary in the director's chair, and this feels like a future cult classic * Vale 50 Plus *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Dimensions
Height: 198 mm
Width: 129 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-0359-2328-1 (9781035923281)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Neil Jordan is an Irish film director, screenwriter and author based in Dublin. His first book, Night in Tunisia, won a Somerset Maugham Award and the Guardian Fiction Prize in 1979. He is also a former winner of the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature, the Irish PEN Award and the Kerry Group Irish Fiction Award. Jordan's films include Angel, the Academy Award-winning The Crying Game, Michael Collins, The Butcher Boy and Interview with the Vampire.