The Sleeper Awakes

Feb 23, 2026 3:47 PM

Author:H G Wells,Patrick Parrinder,Andy Sawyer

The Sleeper Awakes

A troubled insomniac in 1890s England falls suddenly into a sleep-like trance, from which he does not awake for over two hundred years. During his centuries of slumber, however, investments are made that make him the richest and most powerful man on Earth. But when he comes out of his trance he is horrified to discover that the money accumulated in his name is being used to maintain a hierarchal society in which most are poor, and more than a third of all people are enslaved. Oppressed and uneducated, the masses cling desperately to one dream - that the sleeper will awake, and lead them all to freedom.

Reviews

An extraordinary novel... A beautiful tragedy and a series of painful, yet oddly exquisite surprises... Some Great Thing promises to be not just the fiction debut of the year, but also its highlight

—— John Burnside , Scotsman

This is an extraordinary, powerful novel: technically ambitious, passionate and beautifully observed, filled with the truth of human frailty, the mystery of crafts and the stark bewilderment of love

—— A. L. Kennedy

Some Great Thing is just about as fresh as it gets. Wry, harrowing, visceral, the writing bristles with imagination and intent. Colin McAdam has taken a jackhammer to the modern novel and come up with something bright and strong and new

—— Rupert Thomson

Superb...Through muscular and powerful writing, McAdam thwarts all expectations and makes his material thrum with importance, insight and sad truth...Utterly compelling from first to last

—— Daily Telegraph

'Precociously accomplished, wise, deeply moving-Perfectly pitched-A dazzling down-payment on posterity'

—— Scotland on Sunday

'McAdam's narrative weaves in virtuoso dialogue as well as genuine warmth-Exhilarating'

—— Observer

'Impressive and ambitious'

—— Independent

'A highly intelligent and moving book'

—— Time Out

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