Description

‘Shot through with compassion . . . this dreamlike, winding tale is a joy.’ A. L. KENNEDY
‘Moving and unconventionally wise.’ Guardian
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This was how I heard the most important story of my life, the thing that decided me, the story that determined who I was in the end.

As snow begins to fall outside, two strangers meet by chance in a bar. She is trying to make sense of a life shaken by heartbreak and ruined dreams. He is on a desperate quest to find something he lost in his youth.

From the blustery cliffs of Dover to the confines of a nuclear bunker; from the courtroom witness box to the West End stage, he flits from one life to another, never able to stand still.

Extraordinary though his story is, the secret she is keeping is even more surprising, and will take them to a place neither of them – or you – expected.

From the bestselling author of FIVE RIVERS MET ON A WOODED PLAIN comes this captivating novel about love, abandonment, and the power of stories to help us find our way in the world.

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What readers are saying:

***** ‘I absolutely loved this book – it’s beautifully written, very emotional and full of wonderful flights of imagination.’
***** ‘Unlike anything I’ve read before.’
***** ‘A deeply moving account of fragile memory and lost love.’
***** ‘A completely beautiful book . . . I adored it.’

Publisher Review

Steeped in the powerful idea of personal rebirth through the imaginative engagement in the suffering of others. * Metro * A moving and unconventionally wise account of loss and memory and of how redemption works, even for those who resist it most. * Guardian * A delicate tale of unexpected connection lights up another quiet masterpiece from Barney Norris * Waterstones Weekly * Gripping, humane and funny. The Vanishing Hours is both a stunning work of art, and an extraordinarily important novel for our time. * Sophie Ratcliffe, author of The Lost Properties of Love * The Vanishing Hours is a rare thing: a book shot through with compassion. Norris is more than a fine writer, he conveys a deep belief in humanity and its place in nature. This dreamlike, winding tale is a joy. * A. L. Kennedy *