Paul Harding's short novel was one of the most beautifully written pieces of literature I have had the pleasure to read. It was hugely emotional, artfully descriptive and totally mesmorising. The storyline is sad - an elderly man, George, lies dying at home with his family all around him. During his last few days on Earth George hallucinates back to his own childhood days and flashbacks describe his childhood family along with his father, a peddler, who suffered from Epilepsy. George himself was a Horologist and as such the story also revolves around his passion for clocks. I loved the way this novel was centered around clocks at such a poignient time of George's life. An amazing (all be it short) debut novel which in my view was very worthy of The Pilitzer Prize For Fiction award.

This is a dreamlike, strange and sometimes meandering novel focussed on a dying man who is trying to remember/imagine his early childhood and that of his disappeared father. What emerges at the end is a moving story of love, loss and the pain and joy that family brings. Definitely worth reading.

At a mere 192 pages, this Pulitzer Prize-winning novella is a little gem. We meet George Crosby as he lies on his deathbed, drifting in and out of consciousness. He is surrounded by caring family members and appears to have led a full and relatively happy life. Through a series of flashbacks George transports us to his childhood where we meet his father Howard, who scratches a living selling pots and other household items from the back of a cart. In the isolated communities he visits Howard is also called upon to perform other duties, including shooting rabid dogs, delivering babies, cutting hair and, in one particularly gruesome scene, pulling teeth. However, Howard’s home life is far from happy, mainly due to his wife Kathleen’s inability to cope with his frequent epileptic seizures. The pace of the book is slow and thoughtful and perhaps a little over-descriptive at times (fine in a short novella like this, but I don‘t think I could have coped with it in a longer book). There are relatively lengthy sequences describing the hallucinations experienced by George whilst under the influence of his cancer drugs, and Howard whilst in the grip of a seizure. However, for the most part it’s beautifully written and very moving, thankfully not becoming over-sentimental or drifting into Mitch Albom territory (my main concern when I started the book).