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The year is 1949, the city London. Amidst the smog of the capital stumbles Dennis Knuckleyard, a hapless eighteen year-old employed by a second-hand bookshop. One day, on an errand to acquire books for sale, Dennis discovers a novel that simply does not exist. It is a fictitious book, a figment from another novel. Yet it is physically there in his hands. How?
Dennis has stumbled on a book from the Great When, a magical version of London beyond time and space, where reality blurs with fiction and concepts such as Crime and Poetry are incarnated as wondrous, terrible beings. But this other, magical London must remain a secret: if Dennis cannot find a way to return this book to where it belongs, he risks repercussions, such as his body being turned inside out (or worse).
So begins a journey delving deep into the city's occult underbelly and tarrying with an eccentric cast of sorcerers, gangsters, and murderers – some from legend, some all too real, and all with plans of their own. Soon Dennis finds himself at the centre of an explosive series of events that may alter and endanger both Londons forever...
Named a Most Anticipated Novel by Associated Press, NPR.org, Literary Hub, Reactor, Publishers Weekly, and Parade.
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Creators
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Series
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Publisher
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Release date
October 1, 2024 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9781635578867
- File size: 388120 KB
- Duration: 13:28:34
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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Starred review from July 15, 2024
Bestseller Moore (Illuminations) brings the rich detail and intricate plotting familiar to his fans to the first epic fantasy in his Long London series, set in 1949 and premised on the notion that “there might be a higher world concealed behind our own.” That hidden truth is revealed to an entertainingly unprepossessing protagonist, 18-year-old Dennis Knuckleyard, who works in a used bookstore owned by his landlady, Coffin Ada. Dennis encounters the supernatural while on a quotidian errand: he’s sent to another book dealer to purchase a lot of rare Arthur Machen books, hopefully at a bargain. But the haul includes an additional title, Reverend Thomas Hampole’s A London Walk: Meditations in the Streets of the Metropolis, which, Coffin Ada reveals, is not a real book: “It’s not in catalogues. It’s not in libraries. Arthur fucking Machen made it up in a cough cough cough novel.... This shouldn’t be here. This comes from cough cough cough somewhere else.” Possessing this little piece of a parallel universe soon proves deadly dangerous, and could break down the barriers between the “real” London and the one Dennis lives in, which, it turns out, is just a shadow of the other. The worldbuilding is extraordinary and the plot is utterly gripping. Readers are sure to be sucked in. -
Kobna Holdbrook-Smith narrates an immersive fantasy set in post-WWII London. When Dennis Knuckleyard suddenly and violently learns there is a second London alongside the one he knows, it causes his entire worldview to reshape itself. Holdbrook-Smith depicts Dennis as nave and somewhat feckless, mostly harmless, and truly out of his depth. The vast scope of characters Dennis encounters is matched by Holdbrook-Smith's incredible performance. The range of characters includes a young prostitute, a celebrated racing tipster, an occult artist, and many more. Subtle use of audio special effects distinguishes the two Londons, making the eerie one even weirder. Holdbrook-Smith also performs some vocal special effects himself. An afterword delivered by the author provides additional historic context. K.M.P. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2025, Portland, Maine
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