Author:John Boyne,George Blagden

Brought to you by Penguin.
Matthieu Zela has lived his life well. In fact, he's lived several lives well. Because Matthew Zela's life is characterised by one amazing fact: his body stopped ageing before the end of the eighteenth century.
Starting in 1758, a young Matthieu flees Paris after witnessing his mother's brutal murder. His only companions are his younger brother Tomas and one true love, Dominique Sauvet. The story of his life takes us from the French Revolution to 1920s Hollywood, from the Great Exhibition to the Wall Street Crash, and by the end of the twentieth century, Matthieu has been an engineer, a rogue, a movie mogul, a soldier, a financier, a lover to many, a cable TV executive and much more besides.
Brilliantly weaving history and personal experience, this is a dazzling story of love, murder, missed chances, treachery - and redemption.
© John Boyne 2011 (P) Penguin Audio 2020
An extraordinary début
—— Sunday ExpressA minor masterpiece
—— Time OutBoyne should be congratulated for his spirited take on an old theme
—— GuardianBoyne is a skilful storyteller, expertly weaving differing stories together
—— Sunday TribuneSlow burn horror crossed with a powerfully feminist coming-of-age novel . . . this book will haunt your dreams.
—— CHRISTINA HENRY, author of The Lost BoyBeautifully sinister and beguiling, The Year of the Witching is blood-drenched, horrific and enchanting from start to finish.
—— TASHA SURI, author of Empire of SandBone-chilling and breathtakingly beautiful . . . The Year of the Witching is storytelling at its finest.
—— RENA BARRON, author of Kingdom of SoulsThe Year of the Witching blew me away. It's a masterpiece.
—— S F BOOK REVIEWA masterfully eerie, feminist story that binds itself to the reader's mind and won't let go. Alexis Henderson is an author to watch.
—— SHEA ERNSHAW, author of WinterwoodGothic, dark and utterly enthralling, this is a world I wanted to sink into and never leave. I adored this book.
—— EMILY A. DUNCAN, author of Wicked SaintsThe Year of the Witching tells a universal, timeless story about women's power.
—— O, THE OPRAH MAGAZINEThe perfect dark, witchy escape to make you feel a little better about the world we live in now.
—— THE EVERYGIRLAlexis Henderson is giving us dark magic, Black witches, creepy woods and small religious towns, historical realness, and I'm here for it.
—— TOR.COMThis is an intensely dark read and one of the most original books I've read in a long time.
—— BUZZFEEDHenderson blends the supernatural with the real, expertly and ingeniously using dark witchcraft, sigils, and magical plagues to weave in real world themes and issues like racism, the oppression and silencing of women, and religious abuse.
—— NERD DAILYThis is one of the best, righteously angriest books I've read this year, and I cannot recommend it enough.
—— BOOKRIOTThe novel is not dead when we have writers as curious, daring and honest as Nicola Barker. Her latest is downright exquisite.
—— i NewspaperA madly brilliant little book … I loved it.
—— Daily MailIt marks a cautious pivot away from the involutions of H(A)PPY and The Cauliflower, back towards the highly distinctive take on literary realism that characterizes Barker’s earlier work.
—— Keith Miller , Times Literary SupplementGobbled all of this down all of this 209 page gem on a single long-haul flight. Set in a single 20-minute house viewing in Llandudno with a bafflingly diverse cast of characters. It shouldn’t work but I thought it was super.
—— Rick O’Shea’s Best Books of 2019 in RTE.ieKnocked me sideways … It’s so masterful and meta. The narrative style is elegant and frenetic
—— Emma Jane Unsworth , Observer[A]bsurdly well-researched, prescient and pin-sharp [...] so definitely pick it up'
—— Sirin Kale[I]t's thrillingly, DELICIOUSLY fascinating about How We Live Now. She's a MINE of information- philosophy, science, literature, stats, all pulled together in her coolly elegant prose. I could not put it down!
—— Marian KeyesThese 242 pages are an (exhaustive, though not depressing) middle-finger to the word 'should'. A word which justifies women feeling the need to constantly scrutinise every decision; in the name of self-improvement, in order to have the Best Life Possible, at a hundred miles an hour.
—— Buro247Energetic and compelling.
—— Olivia SudjicSykes stays true to "High Low" form by using a high-low mix of vocabulary ... We have all had moments of asking ourselves if we are doing "this" - gestures vaguely - right, which makes the book all the more likeable. This is a form of learning how to succeed by failing - as it admits to being human.
Pandora is my personal guru on all things relating to the zeitgeist. How lucky you are that she can now be yours too.
—— Dolly AldertonThis will spark a thousand conversations and encourage us to find our own path to contentment.
—— Best nonfiction books of 2020 , TopshopHailed as a manifesto for modern women ... packed with her trademark wit, wisdom and philosophical references (if you know her, you know), this book is the opposite of doom and gloom. Instead, her judgement free observations are reassuring, comforting and wholeheartedly uplifting.
—— Marie ClaireRushdie is a master storyteller who weaves his fictions and characters into such agreeable tapestries.
—— Sarah Hayes , TabletThe novel's dazzling virtuosity and cascade of cultural references culminate in a final moving moment of hope
—— Jane Shilling , Daily Mail






