A metaphysical thriller, a meditation on mortality and a chronicle of our self-devouring times - from the masterful David Mitchell.

Teenage runaway Holly Sykes encounters a strange woman who offers a small kindness in exchange for ‘asylum’. Despite flashes of precognition and brief lapses in the laws of reality, decades will pass before Holly fully understands exactly what sort of asylum the woman was seeking. For Holly Sykes - daughter, sister, mother, guardian - is also an unwitting player in a murderous feud played out in the shadows and margins of our world, and may yet prove to be its decisive weapon.

Longlisted
The Man Booker Prize 2014
Published by
Sceptre
Publication date

Buy the book

We benefit financially from any purchases you make when using the ‘Buy the book’ links.

David Mitchell

David Mitchell

About the Author

David Mitchell has written nine novels and adapted his work for screen and stage. He was born in 1969 on the Lancashire coast, but was raised in Malvern, Worcestershire
More about David Mitchell

Other nominated books by David Mitchell

Black Swan Green
Cloud Atlas
number9dream