Description

‘A universal love story’ Guardian

‘Beautiful and very funny’ Brett Anderson

‘This book glows in the heart of the reader’ Max Porter

‘This book is such a sneaky head f*ck – an epic poem in an ancient style about the brutalities of modern love, a masculine interrogation of feminine heartbreak, a really beautiful way to spend an evening’ Lena Dunham

The second time you came, we went from bar to bar to bar. It made the city feel smaller. Like a map we were folding to the size of a stamp. We were good at that. We could have fit an entire universe inside a matchbox.

Love builds up little by little and that’s why it makes people reach for words like root and sediment and other words to do with rocks and trees. But what about the dismantling? Does it happen that way too? Because it feels like it is happening much, much faster. And I am reaching for words like landslide and like wave and like storm …

Exquisitely crafted, wildly imaginative and as darkly funny as it is moving, Hourglass is a revolutionary love story. It turns time upside down, combs the intimate wreckage of heartbreak for something universal, and asks what it means to lose what you love.

‘Hourglass will stay with me for a long time. Hypnotic’ Lemn Sissay

‘Evocative, ecstatic and saturated with off-kilter wit’ Alexandra Kleeman

Publisher Review

Hourglass burnishes its ideas of love and agony with an almost mystical attention to feeling. This book truly glows in the heart of the reader -- Max Porter Evocative, ecstatic, and saturated with off-kilter wit, Hourglass renders heartbreak as both vividly, luminously particular, and intensely, intimately familiar. There are lines from this remarkable book etched all over my memory, indelible -- Alexandra Kleeman This book is such a sneaky head f*ck - an epic poem in an ancient style about the brutalities of modern love, a masculine interrogation of feminine heartbreak, a really beautiful way to spend an evening -- Lena Dunham Hourglass will stay with me for a long time. Hypnotic. -- Lemn Sissay A book for anyone who ever has been or ever will be heartbroken. So that's everyone. -- Hollie McNish A stunning reimagining of the love story ... every word shines new and true -- Sophie Mackintosh, author of The Water Cure Shockingly intimate and devastatingly funny, bleak and true -- Luke Kennard, author of The Answer to Everything This book is a world. A broken dance floor of glass and gold, so rare and precious you barely believe it is real, but haunts you all day like a song. Vivid and brilliant. -- Greta Bellamacina This is high-wire writing: a novel where every sentence counts. They add up to something profoundly honest and truly magical -- Matt Thorne This is a beautiful book: by turns tough and tender, acerbically funny and deeply humane. Keiran Goddard's mind is a marvel. We are lucky to have him. -- Tabitha Lasley