Watchmaker Of Filigree Street

Description

The International Bestseller A Guardian Summer Read An Amazon Best Book of the Month A Goodreads Best Book of the Month A Buzzfeed Summer Read A Foyles Book of the Month A Huffington Post Summer Read A Yorkshire Post Book of the Week A Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2015 In 1883, Thaniel Steepleton returns to his tiny flat to find a gold pocketwatch on his pillow. But he has worse fears than generous burglars; he is a telegraphist at the Home Office, which has just received a threat for what could be the largest-scale Fenian bombing in history. When the watch saves Thaniel's life in a blast that destroys Scotland Yard, he goes in search of its maker, Keita Mori - a kind, lonely immigrant who sweeps him into a new world of clockwork and music. Although Mori seems harmless at first, a chain of unexpected slips soon proves that he must be hiding something. Meanwhile, Grace Carrow is sneaking into an Oxford library dressed as a man. A theoretical physicist, she is desperate to prove the existence of the luminiferous ether before her mother can force her to marry. As the lives of these three characters become entwined, events spiral out of control until Thaniel is torn between loyalties, futures and opposing geniuses. Utterly beguiling, The Watchmaker of Filigree Street blends historical events with dazzling flights of fancy to plunge readers into a strange and magical past, where time, destiny, genius - and a clockwork octopus - collide.

Promotion info

He lived his life like clockwork. Until he met the watchmaker. From the publishers of Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, The Song of Achilles, The Bone Season and Harry Potter comes a ravishing new literary historical fantasy

Reviews

Pulley's electrifying debut is a triumph of speculative fiction. It captures the frenetic energy of a world undergoing extraordinary changes: London in the time of new electrical devices, Gilbert and Sullivan's theatre, and the terror of Irish nationalist bombings ... Pulley expertly employs the tools of mystery and fantasy to examine the social pressures faced by the marginalised. The plot revolves around finding the bomber, but the heart of the story is the universal human quest for acceptance, understanding, and love Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

Author description

Natasha Pulley studied English Literature at Oxford University. After stints working at Waterstones as a bookseller, then at Cambridge University Press as a publishing assistant in the astronomy and maths departments, she did the Creative Writing MA at UEA. She has recently returned from Tokyo, where she lived for nineteen months on a scholarship from the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation. The Watchmaker of Filigree Street is her first novel.