A touching romance, a time travel extravaganza, baroque and moving, S.E. Lister's second novel, following the gothic HIDEOUS CREATURES which put her on the map of literary dreams, confirms a striking talent with distant echoes of THE TIME TRAVELER'S WIFE and THE NIGHT CIRCUS, but with a unique voice of its own full of care and whimsy. Rosa Hyde is the daughter of a time traveller and is stuck in 1945 and desperate to escape, which she eventually does with the assistance of a roisterous time gypsy, Tommy Rust and goes gallivanting alongside him through the corridors of history. An encounter with another traveller, the soldier Harding, a hardened journeyman of the time streams, brings the idyllic wandering to an end and casts doubt in her mind as to where she actually belongs. Melancholy, colourful and lyrical, truly the stuff of dreams. ~ Maxim Jakubowski
Rosa Hyde is the daughter of a time-traveller, stuck in the year 1945. Forced to live through it again, and again, and again. All she ever wanted was to be free from that year, and from the family who keep her there.
She breaks out at last and falls through time, slipping from one century to another, unable to choose where she goes. And she is not alone. Wandering with her is Tommy Rust, time-gypsy and daredevil, certain in his heart of hearts that he will live forever.
Their journeys take them from the ancient shores of forming continents to the bright lights of future cities. They tell themselves that they need no kind of home. That they are anything but lost.
But then comes Harding, the soldier who has fought for a thousand years, and everything changes. Could Harding hold the key to staying in one place, one time? Or will the centuries continue to slip through Rosa’s fingers, as the tides take her further and further away from everything she has grown to love?
S. E. Lister grew up in Gloucestershire, and studied Creative Writing at Warwick University. She has been reading stories since she was old enough to pick up a book, and writing them almost as long. Alongside her creative writing, she has written for various magazines and websites about philosophy and film. She loves vintage clothes, art-house cinemas and growing her own courgettes.
