The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell
Many dates in time and many characters move in and out of the story like pieces in board game. The binding character through all of this is Holly Sykes. The book begins with her story of running away from home in 1984 and ends in the year 2043 as the worlds climate and tech driven society collapses. Each part of the story features a different character and contribution to the final showdown between a cabal of powerful mystics and their enemies.
It’s a lengthy tome and if you have the means I would recommend you purchase it in e-reader format. Unless you need to bludgeon someone with a heavy object, you’ll appreciate not having to lug a 600+ page book around. I don’t mean for that to be off putting, however. The book is long, yes, but it doesn’t feel like it. Each new character adds to the suspense and the rich tapestry Mitchell weaves. The Bone Clocks will be a book that will stick with me.
Excerpt:
“I put my hand on the altar rail. ‘What if … what if Heaven is real, but only in moments? Like a glass of water on a hot day when you’re dying of thirst, or when someone’s nice to you for no reason, or …’ Mam’s pancakes with Toblerone sauce; Dad dashing up from the bar just to tell me, ‘Sleep tight, don’t let the bedbugs bite’; or Jacko and Sharon singing ‘For She’s A Squishy Marshmallow’ instead of ‘For She’s A Jolly Good Fellow’ every single birthday and wetting themselves even though it’s not at all funny; and Brendan giving his old record player to me instead of one of his mates. ‘S’pose Heaven’s not like a painting that’s just hanging there for ever, but more like … Like the best song anyone ever wrote, but a song you only catch in snatches, while you’re alive, from passing cars, or … upstairs windows when you’re lost …”
Kathleen Rear 