Delphi

Pollard, Clare

£12.99

‘I am sick of the future. Up to here with the future. I don’t want anything to do with it; don’t want it near me.’ This is a story about now. It’s a story about a woman, and the family she has made for herself. It’s about the dramas unfolding on our screens and behind the curtains of our homes in a world more turbulent than any of us could have imagined. But it’s also about before. And what comes next. It’s about the flames that have burned for centuries beneath the cracks that are opening now. About the Ancient Greeks, who sacrificed and bargained with their Gods; about prophets and oracles, tarot cards and tea leaves, and how time and certainty and, sometimes, those we love can slip away. It’s about the questions we have always asked as we scroll and click and rage against our fates – and the answers that are coming for us whether we like them or not.

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Publish Date: 28/07/2022

Description

‘Inviting, stylish and candid … Pollard’s future, as a novelist, is very bright indeed’ The i

‘Clever, warm, and funny’ Sarah Moss, The Guardian

‘This isn’t the first – and most certainly won’t be the last – pandemic novel, but it might be the most brilliant’ Daily Mail

‘I am sick of the future. Up to here with the future. I don’t want anything to do with it; don’t want it near me’

It is 2020 and in a time more turbulent than any of us could have ever imagined, a woman is attempting to write a book about prophecy in the ancient world.

Navigating the tightening grip of lockdown, a marriage in crisis, and a ten-year-old son who seems increasingly unreachable, she becomes fixated on our many forms of divination and prediction: on oracles, tarot cards and tea leaves and the questions we have always asked as we scroll and click and rage against our fates.

But in doing so she fails to notice the future creeping into the heart of her own home. For despite our best intentions – our sacrifices and our bargains with the gods – time, certainty and, sometimes, those we love, can still slip away …

Heartbreakingly relatable and achingly funny Delphi is both a snapshot and a time capsule, deftly capturing our pasts, our presents, and how we keep on going in a world that is ever more uncertain and absurd.

‘Delphi is a compact miracle of a book’ Evie Wyld, author of The Bass Rock

‘Bold, brave and uncompromising, Pollard has found a way to write about the last couple of years which is both truthful and enjoyable to read, which I didn’t think was possible’ Cathy Rentzenbrink, author of Everyone is Still Alive

‘Dark and dangerous, disturbed and disturbing in equal measure – I loved it’ Anna Hope, author of Expectation

Additional information

Weight 290 g
Dimensions 204 × 138 × 23 mm
Author

Publisher

Imprint

Cover

Hardback

Pages

224

Language

English

Edition

Hardback original

Dewey

823.92 (edition:23)

Readership

General – Trade / Code: K