In her visionary novel, Anna Smaill creates a world where music has replaced the written word and memories are carried as physical objects.

In a reimagined London, memory is forbidden by the Order, whose vast musical instrument, the Carillon, renders the population amnesiac. An orphaned young man discovers he has a gift that could change all of this forever. Slowly, inexplicably, Simon is beginning to remember - to wake up. He and his friend Lucien travel to the Order’s stronghold in Oxford, where they learn that nothing they ever believed about their world is true.

Longlisted
The Man Booker Prize 2015
Published by
Sceptre
Publication date

Buy the book

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

Anna Smaill

Anna Smaill

About the Author

Both The Chimes and her book of poems, The Violinist in Spring, hint at Anna Smaill’s first love; for years she studied the violin with the intention of becoming a professional performer.
More about Anna Smaill