Book of Guilt

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1970s
1979
1980s
A01=Catherine Chidgey
Animal Testing
Author_Catherine Chidgey
Beyond Black
Category=FBA
Category=FDB
Category=FXN
Dystopian
England
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eq_fiction
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eq_modern-contemporary
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Margaret Atwood
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Patrick McGrath
Speculative
Triplets
Zone of Interest

Product details

  • ISBN 9781399823647
  • Dimensions: 129 x 198mm
  • Publication Date: 21 May 2026
  • Publisher: John Murray Press
  • Publication City/Country: GB
  • Product Form: Paperback
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MORNING, AFTERNOON, NIGHT. THE MOTHERS ARE ALWAYS WATCHING . . .

'Original, dark, clever and compelling' Mary Ann Sieghart, author of The Authority Gap

'This is a compelling and terrifying novel whose alternative history engages chillingly with current possibilities. No one writes children better than Chidgey. She exactly gets their experimental cruelty and related innocence as they attempt to piece their world together' Elizabeth Cook, author of Lux

England, 1979. Vincent, Lawrence and William are the last remaining residents of a secluded New Forest home, part of the government's Sycamore Scheme. Every day, the triplets do their chores, play their games and take their medicine, under the watchful eyes of three mothers: Mother Morning, Mother Afternoon and Mother Night.

Their nightmares are recorded in The Book of Dreams.
Their lessons are taken from The Book of Knowledge.
And their sins are reported in The Book of Guilt.

All the boys want is to be sent to the Big House in Margate, where they imagine a life of sun, sea and fairground rides. But, as the government looks to shut down the Sycamore Homes, the triplets begin to question everything they have been told.

Gradually surrendering its dark secrets, The Book of Guilt is a profoundly unnerving exploration of belonging in a world where some lives are valued less than others.

Catherine Chidgey is the author of In a Fishbone Church (1998), Golden Deeds (2000), The Transformation (2003), The Wish Child (2016), the 'found novel' The Beat of the Pendulum (2019), Remote Sympathy (2021), Pet (2023) and The Axeman's Carnival (2024). Her novels have been published to international acclaim and have been shortlisted and won numerous prizes. She lives in Ngāruawāhia, New Zealand, and lectures in Creative Writing at the University of Waikato.

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