The Trick to Time

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Summary

'There's a trick to time. You can make it expand or you can make it contract. Make it shorter or make it longer . . .'

Some moments you want to last forever. Some moments shape a life.

For Mona, it's the joy of playing on a Wexford beach as a young girl, next to her family's cottage overlooking the Irish sea. The thrill of moving to Birmingham with a new job and a room of her own in a busy boarding-house. Meeting the love of her life; a whirlwind marriage; a sudden, tragic loss.

But now, decades later, Mona is determined to find happiness before it's too late. She knows that every moment is precious. But can we ever let go of the past that shaped us?

'Devastatingly emotional. De Waal's storytelling gives us the poetry and sorrow of life itself' Financial Times

'Weaving tragedy and joy, big themes and the minutiae of life, this is a love story to take on the classics' Emerald Street

'An emotionally sure-handed novel exploring harrowing terrain with deft sensitivity' Sunday Times

Reviews

Weaving tragedy and joy, big themes and the minutiae of life, this is a love story to take on the classics
Emerald Street

About the author

Kit de Waal

Kit de Waal, born to an Irish mother and Caribbean father, was brought up among the Irish community of Birmingham in the 60's and 70's. Her debut novel My Name Is Leon was an international bestseller, shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award, longlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize and won the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year Award for 2017. Her second novel, The Trick to Time, was longlisted for the Women's Prize and her young adult novel Becoming Dinah is shortlisted for the Carnegie CLIP Award 2020. She also crowdfunded and edited an anthology of working class memoir, Common People, which was published in 2018. Kit was named the FutureBook Person of the Year in 2019.

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