1962, Anchor Bend, Oregon.
The sea calls to Eleanor. Like the turn of the waves it beckons her from the heart of the town she’s always known, from her husband Hob and their young daughter, Agnes, to the unfathomable depths of the ocean.
1985
Agnes’s daughter Eleanor is six years old. She shares her name with the grandmother she never knew and everything else with her identical twin, Esmerelda. But to Agnes, only Eleanor is a constant reminder of the past.
1993
After a dark event leaves her family in tatters, Eleanor, now fourteen, is left caring for her alcoholic mother, whose grief has torn her apart. But when Eleanor’s reality begins to unravel, she starts to lose her grip on time itself, slipping from the present into strange other lands where she’s in danger of losing herself altogether.
Eleanor is the story of choices that ripple through time far beyond the moment they’re made. And what happens when, just sometimes, bonds are so powerful they reach beyond this world and into another…
Lies’ recommendation…
“Eleanor by Jason Gurley is such an uncompromising and beautifully layered read, which might explain why it took him 14 years to write. It was recommended to me as “science fiction meets high literatureâ€, and it makes more than good on that promise. Eleanor is a study of how some choices can produce effects that resonate across generations. Though it has elements of time travel, other dimensions, dream worlds and the like, these never feel heavy-handed. Rather, Eleanor is a story of all too real human tragedy, suffered by deeply flawed, deeply relatable characters. I read it in two days, but be warned; it lingers on for weeks. Initially self-published, it wouldn’t surprise me if this book puts Gurley firmly on the map. As a bonus, the jacket artwork is stunning.”
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Eleanor
Jason Gurley
Published 10th March 2016
Harper Voyager
Hardback
9780008132910
RRP £12.99
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Jason Gurley is the author of Greatfall, The Man Who Ended the World and the fiction collection Deep Breath Hold Tight, among other works. His stories have appeared in Lightspeed Magazine and the anthologies Loosed Upon the World and Help Fund My Robot Army!!! He was raised in Alaska and Texas, and now lives and writes in Portland, Oregon.
Learn more about Jason and his books at www.jasongurley.com.
