A fascinating follow-up to the award-nominated EUROPE IN AUTUMN, this equally multi-stranded tale of contiguous worlds takes it time in establishing the connections to the complex European landscape of the original novel but keeps you gripped while the links appear and disappear in turns and the veritable shape of the mystery (and the plot) emerges from the page like a palimpsest. At times an enigmatic spy thriller where the reader realises he doesn't quite hold all the pieces, the novel steadily grows in scope with every page as the links between the Campus, the London and England we know, and other ill-defined territories become more apparent. A splendidly-engineered puzzler and a lesson in world-building. ~ Maxim Jakubowski
In a fractured Europe, new nations are springing up everywhere, some literally overnight.For an intelligence officer like Jim, it's a nightmare. Every week or so a friendly power spawns a new and unknown national entity which may or may not be friendly to England's interests. It's hard to keep on top of it all. But things are about to get worse for Jim.A stabbing on a London bus pitches him into a world where his intelligence service is preparing for war with another universe, and a man has come who may hold the key to unlocking Europe's most jealously-guarded secret...Nominated for the Arthur C. Clarke and British Science Fiction Awards
Dave Hutchinson was born in Sheffield in 1960. After reading American Studies at the University of Nottingham, he became a journalist. He s the author of five collections of short stories and one novel, and his novella The Push was shortlisted for the 2010 BSFA award for short fiction. He has also edited two anthologies and co-edited a third. His short story The Incredible Exploding Man featured in the first Solaris Rising anthology, and appeared in the 29th Year s Best Science Fiction collection. He lives in north London with his wife and several cats.
