The Bone Clocks

The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell

How to describe a book that the author describes as six long, inter-connected novellas? Amazing comes closest. Not a happy book, but not bleak either. I won’t suggest this for a book discussion as it’s 624 pages long, but it’s well worth reading. Our first narrator is Holly Sykes, age 15, getting ready to leave home in southeast England  in 1984 after a big argument with her mother. She meets the mysterious Esther Little, is aided by teen Ed Brubeck, and has a horrible scene removed from her memory on her way to picking strawberries on a farm. Other scenes are set in different countries in different decades, with a group of people who are reincarnated and can live for centuries  (horologists) battling with those who would steal souls to stay alive. Holly is a recurring character, and she encounters both groups of people throughout her life. The scenes set a few decades in our future are quite fascinating; a look into one possible future. This book reminded me a little in its size and wideranging themes of Neal Stephenson’s Anathem and some of Neil Gaiman’s books.

Brenda