The Second Sight of Zachary Cloudesley: The spellbinding BBC Between the Covers book club pick

Product Information

Then Chitra Ramaswamy’s wonderful, insightful Homelands(Canongate), the story of her friendship with Henry Wuga, a former German teenage refugee to Britain – a book that feels very pertinent to the world we now find ourselves in. With a Dickensian cast of characters that are brilliantly bonkers one moment and poignant the next, Sean Lusk's debut will take readers on an immersive journey into the wonders of the world of Zachary Cloudesley.

The opening chapter is one of tragedy as when Zachary Cloudsley enters the world, his mother leaves it. All of these people have interesting histories of their own, which are revealed during the early stages of the novel. Zachary's mother dies whilst giving birth to him, which gives him a guilty complex and without his mother an aunt has a great influence on his life, I couldn't help thinking of Bertie Wooster at this point. Abel in Constantinople was very quickly and shortly dealt with, and this is where the book started to falter. She dances for days without pause or rest, and as she is joined by hundreds of others, the authorities declare an emergency.Frankenstein’s creature was a fleshly automaton, made in pursuit of everlasting life, a being equally of science and of horror. The answer, I think, is because they wanted to believe that an automaton was capable of rivalling, even exceeding human intelligence. What’s wonderful with this trans character is that, some initial lack of surety about how to approach him aside, everyone embraces him and accepts him unreservedly on his terms throughout the book. Three years later, Jack is still in charge - of supporting his sisters, of making sure nobody knows they’re alone in the house, and - quite suddenly - of finding out the truth about what happened to his mother.

To read his recipes for baked salsify, chicken pie and walnut cake is to be happy, let alone to make them.At its considerable heart, The Second Sight of Zachary Cloudsley is a novel that examines, with great empathy and understanding what it means to be connected, not in a charming send a Christmas card once a year kind of way, but in an everything on the line fashion. By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. intricately plotted, and peopled with intriguing characters' - Daily Mail What readers are saying: 'an excellent historical, magical realist novel' 'beautifully written' 'full of love and humour' 'original and rich in historical detail' 'my best book of 2022' 'totally engrossing . Set in an era of superstition, hysteria, and extraordinary change, and inspired by the true events of a doomed summer, The Dance Tree is an impassioned story of family secrets, forbidden love, and women pushed to the edge. Who hasn’t wished they could rewind time, enjoy a favourite holiday again, fall in love again, or cancel a tragedy.

This is a beautifully written story about a boy born with the ability to see into the minds of the people he meets and that spans 18th-century Europe, from London to Constantinople. Forget Dickens this Christmas and try High John the Conquerer by Tariq Goddard (Repeater Books), which embodies the best of what the avant garde Repeater stands for, blending working-class politics with experimental fiction and hauntological analysis. A gift at times and a curse at others, it is nonetheless these visions that will help him complete a journey that he was always destined to make - to travel across Europe to Constantinople and find out what happened to his father all those years ago. All the characters were intriguing and although the main focus is on Zachary Cloudesley and his father Abel the side characters also had such intetesting and different tales to tell and yet their lives were inextricably linked. The particular delight of Sean Lusk’s The Second Sight of Zachary Cloudsley is that it manages to be all those things in one captivatingly alive book, marrying many of the staples of life such as great grief, loss, joy and first love with a story that’s thrillingly expansive and rich with intrigue and set in mid-eighteenth century London, Europe and the glitteringly exotic climes of Ottoman-era Constantinople.

courtesy IMP Awards) Creative inspiration can come from all kinds of strange, beautiful and unexpected places – a waterfall at sunset, a colourfully-dressed woman on a train at peak hour or a snippet of history, long forgotten but dredged up to fill a social media post with a fascinating factoid. I would also give The Secret Lives of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw (One), a collection of short stories I’ve been talking about all year. I didn't really understand why Turkey was so important (maybe a historical context note about the war at the front of the book would have helped). He is, I think, Master Abel,’ said Tom with a smile intended in the direction of reassurance, ‘like the best clock we could ever hope to make.