Smoke - Softcover

Vyleta, Dan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0297609939 ISBN 13: 9780297609933

Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson

Synopsis

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About this title

From the Back Cover:

Imagine a world in which every wicked thought is visible to all . . . 

In an alternative Victorian England, a population is held in thrall to sin. From a brief flicker of envy to a deep murderous rage, sin is immediately visible as smoke rising from the skin. The worse the sin, the more noxious the haze. But the elite have learned to control their smoke, proof of their virtue and right to rule.

Thomas Argyle and Charlie Cooper are friends at a prestigious boarding school near Oxford. Charlie is naturally good, but Thomas’s father was accused of a terrible crime, and Thomas fears that the same evil lies coiled inside him. Then, on a trip to London—a forbidden city shrouded in darkness—they witness an event that leads them to question the very nature of virtue. But it is Livia, the daughter of a powerful aristocrat, who reveals that the rules of smoke can be broken. Together, they set out on a quest to uncover the truth about their world of smoke, soot and ash—and perhaps to change it . . .

Combining history, allegory and adventure, Smoke is a narrative tour de force and a tale of ferocious imaginative power, told by a master storyteller.

About the Author:

Dan Vyleta is the son of Czech refugees who emigrated to Germany in the late 1960s. After growing up in Germany, he left to attend university in the UK where he completed a PhD in History at King's College, Cambridge. His debut novel, Pavel & I, gathered immediate international acclaim and was translated into eight languages. His second novel, The Quiet Twin, was shortlisted for the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, and his third, The Crooked Maid, was a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and won the J.I Segal Award. He lives in Stratford-upon-Avon.

About this edition

• Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson
• ISBN 10: 0297609939
• ISBN 13: 9780297609933
• Binding: Paperback