Metronome
The 'Unputdownable' BBC Two Between the Covers Book Club Pick
1st Edition
Published on 31. March 2022
320 pages
978-1-5266-3957-8 (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'
More details
Edition
1. Auflage
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
ISBN-13
978-1-5266-3957-8 (9781526639578)
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
Book
03/2023
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
€13.00
Shipment within 10-20 days
Book
03/2022
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
€41.03
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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 Seán Ó Faoláin Prize. He lives in London.
Content
- Cover
- 1 Sheep
- 2 Croft
- 3 Berm
- 4 Needles
- 5 Maps
- 6 Enamel
- 7 Day Sixteen
- 8 Trimester
- 9 Thumb
- 10 Stitch
- 11 Peat
- 12 Broadcast
- 13 Tor
- 14 Mutton
- 15 Proxy
- 16 Departure
- 17 Håvsra
- 18 Phantom
- 19 Tides
- 20 Stairs
- 21 Bowline
- 22 Cartridge
- 23 Light
- 24 Refractions
- 25 Cairn
- 26 Shadows
- 27 Child
- 28 Porridge
- 29 Kindling
- 30 Shell
- 31 Seconds
- 32 Contraband
- 33 Ithaca
- 34 Census
- 35 Parole
- 36 Magpie
- 37 Brine
- 38 Metronome
- 39 Pathways
- 40 Tree
- Acknowledgements
- About the Author
- A Note on the Type
