Metronome
The 'unputdownable' BBC Two Between the Covers Book Club Pick
Published on 31. March 2022
Book
Hardback
320 pages
978-1-5266-3954-7 (ISBN)
Description
Shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke Award
Longlisted for the Goldsboro Books Glass Bell Award
'Imagined with an impressively detailed three-dimensional solidity' Sunday Times
'I loved it ... You could feel the chill of the wind ... Fantastic; it's a great book' Sara Cox, BBC Two 'Between the Covers'
'Stylish and thoughtful ... The eerie claustrophobia of the setting will stay with the reader for a long while.' Literary Review
'Unputdownable ... An extraordinary book ... as insightful and as premonitory as Orwell's 1984' Litro
___________________________________________________
Not all that is hidden is lost.
For twelve years Aina and Whitney have been in exile on an island for a crime they committed together, tethered to a croft by pills they must take for survival every eight hours. They've kept busy - Aina with her garden, her jigsaw, her music; Whitney with his sculptures and maps - but something is not right.
Shipwrecks have begun washing up, and their supply drops have stopped. And on the day they're meant to be collected for parole, the Warden does not come. Instead there's a sheep. But sheep can't swim...
As days pass, Aina begins to suspect that their prison is part of a peninsula, and that Whitney has been keeping secrets. And if he's been keeping secrets, maybe she should too. Convinced they've been abandoned, she starts investigating ways she might escape. As she comes to grips with the decisions that haunt her past, she realises her biggest choice is yet to come.
___________________________________________________
'Taut, unsettling and so completely charged with both tension and emotion' Naomi Ishiguro
'With echoes of Emily St John Mandel and Megan Hunter' Elizabeth Macneal
'Tense, taut and absorbing' Gemma Reeves
'As moving as it is chilling' Emma Stonex
Reader Reviews
'An original and gripping read'
'Addictive and atmospheric'
'A haunting and original dystopian story'
'Compelling and absorbing'
'A refreshing change from the norm'
Longlisted for the Goldsboro Books Glass Bell Award
'Imagined with an impressively detailed three-dimensional solidity' Sunday Times
'I loved it ... You could feel the chill of the wind ... Fantastic; it's a great book' Sara Cox, BBC Two 'Between the Covers'
'Stylish and thoughtful ... The eerie claustrophobia of the setting will stay with the reader for a long while.' Literary Review
'Unputdownable ... An extraordinary book ... as insightful and as premonitory as Orwell's 1984' Litro
___________________________________________________
Not all that is hidden is lost.
For twelve years Aina and Whitney have been in exile on an island for a crime they committed together, tethered to a croft by pills they must take for survival every eight hours. They've kept busy - Aina with her garden, her jigsaw, her music; Whitney with his sculptures and maps - but something is not right.
Shipwrecks have begun washing up, and their supply drops have stopped. And on the day they're meant to be collected for parole, the Warden does not come. Instead there's a sheep. But sheep can't swim...
As days pass, Aina begins to suspect that their prison is part of a peninsula, and that Whitney has been keeping secrets. And if he's been keeping secrets, maybe she should too. Convinced they've been abandoned, she starts investigating ways she might escape. As she comes to grips with the decisions that haunt her past, she realises her biggest choice is yet to come.
___________________________________________________
'Taut, unsettling and so completely charged with both tension and emotion' Naomi Ishiguro
'With echoes of Emily St John Mandel and Megan Hunter' Elizabeth Macneal
'Tense, taut and absorbing' Gemma Reeves
'As moving as it is chilling' Emma Stonex
Reader Reviews
'An original and gripping read'
'Addictive and atmospheric'
'A haunting and original dystopian story'
'Compelling and absorbing'
'A refreshing change from the norm'
Reviews / Votes
Taut, unsettling and so completely charged with both tension and emotion, I found myself captivated by Metronome. I loved the clarity of its vision and the clean intensity of its prose, and I know that its vivid characters and the bleak, brutal beauty of the world they inhabit will haunt my dreams for a long time now, in the absolute best of ways -- Naomi Ishiguro With echoes of Emily St John Mandel and Megan Hunter, this haunting literary thriller is about survival, loss and the binds that unite and break us. Chilling, eerie and powerful -- Elizabeth Macneal A pure, tender, terrifying vision that had me gripped to its beat from the first page. Cleverly imagined and beautifully creepy, it's a story as moving as it is chilling -- Emma Stonex Echoes the likes of Emily St John Mandel's Station Eleven ... A compellingly crafted debut, rich in tension and atmosphere * Living Magazine * Imagined with an impressively detailed three-dimensional solidity * Sunday Times * I loved it ... You could feel the chill of the wind ... Fantastic; it's a great book -- Sara Cox Stylish and thoughtful ... The setup is delicious ... A talented writer. The eerie claustrophobia of the setting will stay with the reader for a long while. The relationship between his characters is memorably, and often wittily, drawn * Literary Review * A great debut novel that tells a story of survival and mistrust with skill and craft * Storgy * Unputdownable ... An extraordinary book ... Metronome might well be a brave new world created by Tom Watson, as insightful and as premonitory as Orwell's 1984 * Litro * Tom Watson has conjured a relationship corroded by compromise and capitulation, and worked it into an extraordinary love story - or rather, a story of what love looks like when affection and trust have fallen away * The Times * Dystopian island drama that packs a punch ... A bold debut * Observer * Atmospheric ... Watson's use of language is nuanced and sensitive, with landscape writing especially a sensory highlight * Guardian * An element of 1984 and Big Brother is watching you ... I found myself squirreling off just so I could get another quick chapter in ... It's such a page-turner -- Adrian Scarborough It really gave an insight to the human psyche, the power of the mind -- Emeli Sande The rhythm of the book is what struck me -- Kate BottleyMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 153 mm
Weight
606 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-5266-3954-7 (9781526639547)
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
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
03/2022
1st Edition
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
€9.49
Available for download
Person
Tom Watson is a graduate of the Creative Writing MA at the University of East Anglia, where he was the recipient of the Curtis Brown Prize in memory of Giles Gordon. His debut novel, Metronome, was shortlisted for the Bridport Prize, and his short fiction has been shortlisted for the Bristol Short Story Prize and awarded runner-up for the Sean O Faolain Prize. He lives in London.