Metronome: The 'unputdownable' BBC Two Between the Covers Book Club Pick

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She is ambitious, industrious, working hard to create whatever they need and investigating their surroundings. He is passive and compliant, spending time on his art projects and acquiescing to their fate. It was interesting to find out that their crime was to go against the governments rules over having a baby. We are told that they went against strict laws and Aina fell pregnant. It’s all very The Handmaid’s tale although we never find out what the rules are exactly and why they are in place. Government control would be the obvious conclusion. Did I ever tell you how sounds continue to reverberate long after we're able to hear them? They say if you had a powerful enough microphone you could hear conversations that took place years ago." An eerie, striking debut by an award-winning author for fans of Emma Stonex, Francine Toon and Megan Hunter

I found it difficult to completely buy into the premise and situation of Metronome. So it became more a case of accepting its scenario where the characters play out their parts for dramatic effect. I read Metronome through its inclusion in the 2022 Year of Reading blind subscription from the English language bookstore Shakespeare and Company in Paris, France. In the same article, Tom adds: “I couldn’t be more delighted to work with Emma and the team at Bloomsbury to publish Metronome. They’ve shown such enthusiasm and support, and I feel humbled to see Metronomeat the same house as legends such as Madeline Miller, Ben Myers (shortlisted for the 2014 BSSP), and so many other heroes.” She is haunted by the loss of a child, the fear of losing another child, the endlessness and despair of not knowing what happened to her son....Tom Watson’s debut Metronome is a surreal survival story with a bit of a dystopian edge. Set on an island (or is it?) it is for the most part a claustrophobic and disturbing two hander that requires readers to buy into a real sense of wrongness before then upping the stakes. Then one day, a sheep arrives on the island having swum from somewhere. But can sheep swim? Where and how did it get here? That strange event starts off a chain of thoughts which spirals out of control. Metronome takes you on the journey down that chain and what a journey it is. The setting feels very closed off and limited as we only see the immediate area through their eyes. We see what they do which is not much at all. I played a game as a child once where you could only see two cms around you at any one time and you had to navigate blindly really through a maze. This feels like that and I recalled the feeling of frustration, fear, the unknown and everything the characters must be feeling. A book about guilt, new beginnings, making mistakes or decisions, because of being forced by circumstances. The betrayal by someone the mc thought she could trust, and her struggle with sensing this from the beginning, and the not knowing if she should trust. I came out of this book thinking I had mixed feelings about it, but it's starting to dawn on me that it's more an absence of any feeling at all. The intriguing premise prompted me to buy this without knowing anything about the author's other work.

And the exile to an island, in the middle of God knows where, surrounded by only ocean..... Trying to stay afloat trying to survive, whilst everything you thought to be true seems to be a lie. Taking pills, relying on hear-say, or to take a chance and rely on your guttfeeling...? More exciting news for another of our 2016 shortlistees: Tom Watson’s debut novel, Metronome, will be published by Bloomsbury in spring 2022.

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Tom Watson has crafted a novel which is replete with tension and barely expressed emotions. The emotional and relationship consequences of exile and isolation on two people whose initial actions led to their exile for twelve years are brought to life through the sparse dialogue between Whitney and Aina where so much is left unsaid. Aina’s growing understanding that Whitney has consistently misled her is brilliantly realised as is her subsequent sense of betrayal and disillusion. Aina and Whitney have been exiled to an island for an unspecified crime which will become clear as the story unfolds. They have been there twelve years, tethered to their little croft by the need to take a pill from a dispensing machine every eight hours without fail or they will die. They have built a reasonable life, but after twelve years they are expecting to be collected by a Warden who has failed to communicate with them for the past three years. When the parole does not happen and instead an impossible sheep appears, Aina starts to suspect Whitney of lying to her about their situation. She finds a way of slowly gaming the pill machine to over time give her an extra and hence the capacity to go further from their croft. But the situation is soon going to become more complicated and her relationship to Whitney will be further tested. Metronome is beautifully written, with prose so lyrical and moving. The author captures the pure desolation of the landscape, with the weather playing such a large part in the story. There are passages that made me take such a deep breath, he describes the simple things, such as a candle being snuffed out with such care and precision - I could almost smell the molten wax as the flame fluttered and died. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed this book, perhaps because it didn’t serve up everything to me on a plate.