The Falling Thread

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What to expect

Bloomsbury presents The Falling Thread by Adam O'Riordan, read by Anna Krippa.

Exquisite' Financial Times

'Funny and moving, full of surprises and challenging ideas' Times Literary Supplement

'Deeply satisfying' Guardian

'O’Riordan imbues his narrative with an acutely modern awareness of power and capitalism’ The Times
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Manchester, the summer of 1890. A city humming with industry and gleaming with affluence.

But for Charles, cloistered in his middle-class parents' suburban villa on holiday from university, the city's vibrancy holds no charms. Bored and a little listless, he spends the summer in pursuit of his little sisters' governess, Hettie. Before the summer's end, both must face the consequences of their affair – consequences they will live with for the rest of their lives.

Charles's sisters come of age as women of the new century – and experience a very different Manchester from their brother and guardian. In the smog and glitter of the city, both sisters will discover the very different things they seek, and the very different women they will become. But as a new era springs into being, a darker shadow stretches, threatening to engulf the whole world...

A captivating portrait of a family in time, The Falling Thread is a hauntingly evocative debut novel from one of our most exciting literary talents.

Critics Review

An elegant, enthralling novel. I found I couldn't stop reading this intimiste epic of social change in the years leading up to the First World War. It has the lustre of life, beautiful and poignant
ADAM FOULDS
This poised, Jamesian debut novel about a Manchester family in the lead up to the first world war is a masterclass in detail and atmosphere ... As with Breugel’s painting, it’s the incidental which is momentous, the everyday given such intimate attention that it becomes extraordinary … Reading this book feels like stepping through a hushed and ornate museum, or a model village whose simulacrum of real life is so perfect as to be unsettling
OBSERVER
Super-assured ... Wholly convincing lives, described and written with great limpid precision of language
WILLIAM BOYD
A wonderful evocation of period - through language, clothes, objects - any reader will be irresistibly transported to Manchester and the lives of this strange Edwardian family
TIM PEARS
Captures the broad canvas of a vibrant city, as well as the fine grain of daily life … A deeply satisfying meshing of the vast sweep of history with the familiar textures of lives as they are lived
GUARDIAN
A family saga with below-stairs scenes, written in calm, decorous prose. It is also funny and moving, fully of surprises and challenging ideas ... Its evocation of the past offers many gifts of observation and psychological insight. His writing is a constant pleasure
TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT
O’Riordan’s prose is exquisite, and his tone cool and ironic, while subtly drawing attention to the barriers of class, gender and sexuality
FINANCIAL TIMES
Immaculately written … the detail and the dialogue are acutely rendered
LITERARY REVIEW
Exquisite
METRO
Immaculately written … O’Riordan imbues his narrative with an acutely modern awareness of power and capitalism
THE TIMES
Elegant and engaging … Beautifully observed detail and skilful evocation of the turbulence of the time
DAILY MAIL
It's bloody brilliant
GUY GARVEY
Beguiling ... A read to warm a winter evening
DAILY MAIL, Books of the Year
Strong on atmosphere … Lyrical
TABLET
Compelling ... The novel's considered portrait of upper-class lives brings a Jamesian quality to this debut
IRISH TIMES

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