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'Dazzling.' The Times
'Exceptional.' Guardian
'Brilliant.' Observer
'Extraordinary.' Financial Times
Winner of the Encore Award 2022.
Longlisted for the Booker Prize 2021.
November 1944. A German rocket strikes London, and five young lives are atomised in an instant.
November 1944. That rocket never lands. A single second in time is altered, and five young lives go on - to experience all the unimaginable changes of the twentieth century.
Because maybe there are always other futures. Other chances.
From the best-selling, prize-winning author of Golden Hill, Light Perpetual is a story of the everyday, the miraculous and the everlasting. Ingenious and profound, full of warmth and beauty, it is a sweeping and intimate celebration of the gift of life.
About the author
Francis Spufford is the author of three novels and five highly-praised works of non-fiction which are most frequently described by reviewers as either 'bizarre' or 'brilliant', and usually as both. His debut work of fiction was the historical novel Golden Hill, which won the Costa First Novel Award, the RSL Ondaatje Prize, the Desmond Elliott Prize, and was shortlisted for four others. His second novel, Light Perpetual, was awarded the Encore Award and longlisted for the Booker Prize. His third novel, the alternative history Cahokia Jazz, was recognised by the Science Fiction community when it was awarded the Sidewise Award in 2023. He teaches writing at Goldsmiths College, University of London, and lives in Essex.
Summary
November 1944. A German rocket strikes London, and five young lives are atomised in an instant. November 1944. A single second in time is altered, and five young lives go on - to experience all the unimaginable changes of the twentieth century. Because maybe there are always other futures.
Foreword
From the best-selling, prize-winning author of Golden Hill, a novel of the everyday, the miraculous and the everlasting.
Report
Dazzling ... [Spufford is] one of the finest prose stylists of his generation. If his stories grip, his sentences practically glow. Robert Douglas-Fairhurst The Times
