SMOKE is a gripping tale that bridges commercial, literary and genre fiction – a sweeping epic with the thrilling edge of The Secret History or The Passage and the magic of Philip Pullman’s ‘Dark Materials’ trilogy or Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell.
SMOKE opens in a private boarding school near Oxford, but history has not followed the path known to us. In this other past, sin is a physical attribute, visible to all, and children are born carrying the seeds of evil within them. It is in this school, surrounded by the sons of the wealthy and well-connected, that two boys called Thomas and Charlie discover that the world of smoke, soot and ash is not as it seems, for sin has a secret history, and virtue a politics both intricate and murderous. The two boys soon leave the confines of the school to enter into a struggle for the very soul of their nation. But will their own souls survive unscathed?
Read by Allan Corduner
(p) 2016 Penguin Random House LLC
SMOKE opens in a private boarding school near Oxford, but history has not followed the path known to us. In this other past, sin is a physical attribute, visible to all, and children are born carrying the seeds of evil within them. It is in this school, surrounded by the sons of the wealthy and well-connected, that two boys called Thomas and Charlie discover that the world of smoke, soot and ash is not as it seems, for sin has a secret history, and virtue a politics both intricate and murderous. The two boys soon leave the confines of the school to enter into a struggle for the very soul of their nation. But will their own souls survive unscathed?
Read by Allan Corduner
(p) 2016 Penguin Random House LLC
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Reviews
Astonishing . . . it's filling in that gaping hole left by both Harry Potter and Philip Pullman's Northern Lights. Yes, really
Books to look out for in 2016
For once both comparisons (with Harry Potter and Philip Pullman's Northern Lights) are apt . . . this is a novel that stays in the imagination long after it is read
Mesmerising and imaginative . . . Smoke is at once profound, moving and timely: a novel that tackles the most fundamental question of good versus evil
Its subtle touches mean the story takes on a world of its own . . . you'll wonder why no one has seen smoke this way before
It's detailed, multi-layered and feels authentic - and might just win over historical fiction fans too
a great work of imagination
Original and enthralling
Potter-esque comparisons will be made (with some Dickensian England thrown in) of the richness and intricacy of Vyleta's world
a vivid, imaginative and gripping fantasy thriller