Description

Shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke Award
Longlisted for the Goldsboro Books Glass Bell Award

‘Unputdownable … An extraordinary book … as insightful and as premonitory as Orwell’s 1984’ Litro

‘With echoes of Emily St John Mandel and Megan Hunter’ Elizabeth Macneal

‘Stylish and thoughtful … The eerie claustrophobia of the setting will stay with the reader for a long while.’ Literary Review

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Not all that is hidden is lost…

For twelve years Aina and Whitney have been in exile on an island for a crime they committed together, tethered to a croft by pills they take for survival every eight hours. They’ve kept busy – Aina with her garden, her jigsaw, her music; Whitney with his sculptures and maps – but something is not right.

Shipwrecks have begun washing up, supply drops have stopped and on the day their punishment is meant to end, the Warden does not come. Instead a sheep appears; but sheep can’t swim.

Aina becomes convinced that they’ve been abandoned, and that Whitney has been keeping secrets. As she starts testing the limits of their prison, investigating ways she might escape, she is confronted by decisions that haunt her past. Little does she realise that her biggest choice is yet to come…

‘Taut, unsettling and so completely charged with both tension and emotion’ Naomi Ishiguro
‘As moving as it is chilling’ Emma Stonex

Reader Reviews
‘An original and gripping read’
‘Addictive and atmospheric’
‘A haunting and original dystopian story’
‘Compelling and absorbing’
‘A refreshing change from the norm’

Publisher Review

Taut, unsettling and so completely charged with both tension and emotion, I found myself captivated by Metronome. I loved the clarity of its vision and the clean intensity of its prose, and I know that its vivid characters and the bleak, brutal beauty of the world they inhabit will haunt my dreams for a long time now, in the absolute best of ways -- Naomi Ishiguro With echoes of Emily St John Mandel and Megan Hunter, this haunting literary thriller is about survival, loss and the binds that unite and break us. Chilling, eerie and powerful -- Elizabeth Macneal A pure, tender, terrifying vision that had me gripped to its beat from the first page. Cleverly imagined and beautifully creepy, it's a story as moving as it is chilling -- Emma Stonex Echoes the likes of Emily St John Mandel's Station Eleven ... A compellingly crafted debut, rich in tension and atmosphere * Living Magazine * Imagined with an impressively detailed three-dimensional solidity * Sunday Times * I loved it ... You could feel the chill of the wind ... Fantastic; it's a great book -- Sara Cox Stylish and thoughtful ... The setup is delicious ... A talented writer. The eerie claustrophobia of the setting will stay with the reader for a long while. The relationship between his characters is memorably, and often wittily, drawn * Literary Review * A great debut novel that tells a story of survival and mistrust with skill and craft * Storgy * Unputdownable ... An extraordinary book ... Metronome might well be a brave new world created by Tom Watson, as insightful and as premonitory as Orwell's 1984 * Litro * Tom Watson has conjured a relationship corroded by compromise and capitulation, and worked it into an extraordinary love story - or rather, a story of what love looks like when affection and trust have fallen away * The Times * Dystopian island drama that packs a punch ... A bold debut * Observer * Atmospheric ... Watson's use of language is nuanced and sensitive, with landscape writing especially a sensory highlight * Guardian * An element of 1984 and Big Brother is watching you ... I found myself squirreling off just so I could get another quick chapter in ... It's such a page-turner -- Adrian Scarborough It really gave an insight to the human psyche, the power of the mind -- Emeli Sande The rhythm of the book is what struck me -- Kate Bottley