About this item
After the end of a brutal civil war, London is divided, as slums stand next to a walled city of elites insulated from the poverty of the city. Monk-like masters are selected for special schooling, shutting themselves away for decades studying to compose the chimes, beautiful compositions played morning and night citywide, to mute the memory and keep the citizens trapped in ignorance. A young boy named Simon arrives in London alone and with nothing but the vague sense of a half-forgotten promise, to find someone, but he is thwarted. What he finds instead is a new family--a gang of scavengers that patrols the underbelly of London looking for valuable metal to sell. Drawn in by an enigmatic and beautiful young leader, a blind young man named Lucien with a gift for song, Simon quickly forgets what brought him to the place he has made his home.
About the Author
Anna Smaill lives in Wellington with her husband, novelist Carl Shuker, and her daughter. She studied performance violin at Canterbury University and creative writing at the International Institute of Modern Letters at the University of Victoria, and has a PhD in English Literature from University College London. She is the author of one book of poetry (, VUP 2005) and her poems have been published and anthologised in New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Her first novel will be published by Sceptre in Feburary 2015.
