Reviews

''Tense and engrossing... readers who loved The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry will not be disappointed.'' - Sunday Times

''An instant classic.'' - Daily Express

''You will end up grinning dippily and recommending this wild, searching book to everyone you know.'' - The Times

''Brilliantly realized... a powerful study of grief, loss, guilt, depression, mental illness - and ultimately the power of love - which grips the reader on every page.'' - Daily Mail

Synopsis

Summer, 1972: Two seconds have been added to the Atomic clock so as to counteract the irregularities in the Earth's rate of rotation. Eleven-year-old Byron has been told this but still struggles to understand. What might it mean? In the claustrophobic heat, he and his friend begin ‘Operation Perfect’, a hapless mission to rescue Byron’s mother from impending crisis.

Winter, present day: As frost creeps across the moor, Jim cleans tables in the local café, a solitary figure struggling with OCD. His job is a relief from the rituals that govern his nights.

Little would seem to connect them except that two seconds can change everything. If your world can be shattered in an instant, might time also put things right?

Publication

Rachel Joyce's most recent novel - The Homemade God - is out now from Doubleday