The Worlds We Leave Behind

Author A.F. Harrold, illustrated by Levi Pinfold
Narrator Kit Griffiths
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing
Run Time 4 hours and 55 minutes
Format Audio
Genre Children’s / Teenage fiction and true stories, Children’s / Teenage fiction: Magical realism, Children’s / Teenage personal and social topics: Emotions, moods and feelings, Children’s / Teenage personal and social topics: Friends and friendships, Children’s / Teenage personal and social topics: Self-awareness and self-esteem.

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What to expect

Bloomsbury presents The Worlds We Leave Behind by A.F. Harrold, read by Kit Griffiths.

An extraordinary story about friendship and betrayal. Of revenge and retribution but also redemption. Perfect for 11+ readers who enjoy Stranger Things.

Hex never meant for the girl to follow him and his friend Tommo into the woods. He never meant for her to fall off the rope swing and break her arm. When the finger of blame is pointed at him, Hex runs deep into the woods and his fierce sense of injustice leads him to a strange clearing in the woods – a clearing that has never been there before – where an old lady in a cottage offers him a deal. She’ll rid the world of those who wronged him and Hex can carry on his life with them all forgotten and as if nothing ever happened. But what Hex doesn’t know is someone else has been offered the same deal.

When Hex’s best friend Tommo wakes up the next day, he is in a completely different world but he only has murmurs of memories of the world before. Moments of deja vu that feel like Tommo’s lived this day before.
Can Tommo put the world right again? Back to how it was? Or can he find a way to make a new world that could be better for them all?

Critics Review

A “what if” story about alternative versions of lives, and the consequences of our actions. Levi Pinfold adds dark, realist, atmospheric illustrations that heighten the drama.

Children's Book of the Week, The Sunday Times

A beautifully written dark & twisty book which lingers long after the final page has been turned. Levi Pinfold’s haunting illustrations add to the magic

Hannah Gold, author of The Last Bear

Yet again A.F Harrold & Levi Pinfold have produced a near perfect work of art. Harrold words bring wit and wonder together, and their spirit is beautifully caught by Pinfold’s images.

Carnegie-winning author, Anthony McGowan

AF Harold is an astonishing writer and this story of lost and found friendships is brimming over with dark imagination and magical storytelling. No one will be able to forget spending time in his world

Keith Gray

A dark and intriguing mystery, full of Pinfold’s breath-taking artwork.

Editor's choice, The Bookseller

Broodingly atmospheric … A fantasy blending the strange and the everyday

Sunday Times

Luxuriantly illustrated by the fabulous Levi Pinfold. This exceptional book about friendship and paths not taken should rake in awards.

Observer, The New Review

This spellbinding story asks what you would do if you could rewrite history and wipe clean everyone’s memory of events — and even of people. This is the dilemma confronting troubled Hex when a menacing old woman offers to ‘disappear’ those who accuse him of causing an accident. Beautifully written and illustrated, this is poignant, dark and thought-provoking

Daily Mail

With darkly beautiful monochrome illustrations by Levi Pinfold, this is a story about best friends Hex and Tommo who find themselves caught up in a bargain that changes their world. With classic Grimm-esque fairytale vibes, this is a Stranger Things style tale that’s utterly spellbinding

Gift Inspiration 2022: the best books to give to children, teens and young adults, Culturefly

Extraordinary … as moving, strange and profound as Skellig

Guardian on The Song from Somewhere Else

Poet AF Harrold’s The Worlds We Leave Behind (Bloomsbury) – a contemporary fairytale about accidents, decisions and alternate realities – was dizzying in its scope. Levi Pinfold’s sensationally dark, atmospheric illustrations only amplified

The best children's books of 2022, Observer New Review

An impeccably crafted, cerebral fantasy.

Booklist, starred review

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