** THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER**

'A delight... A tightly written, moving and exciting' Daily Telegraph

Terrified, a young prisoner in the Second World War closes his eyes and pictures himself going out to bat on a sunlit cricket ground in Hampshire.

Across the courtyard in a Victorian workhouse, a father too ashamed to acknowledge his son.

A skinny girl steps out of a Chevy with a guitar; her voice sends shivers through the skull.

Soldiers and lovers, parents and children, scientists and musicians risk their bodies and hearts in search of connection - some key to understanding what makes us the people we become.

Provocative and profound, Sebastian Faulks's novel journeys across continents and time to explore the chaos created by love, separation and missed opportunities. From the pain and drama of these highly particular lives emerges a mysterious consolation: the chance to feel your heart beat in someone else's life.

'It does what any good novel should - it unsettles, it moves, and it forces us to question who we are' Sunday Times

A Sunday Times bestseller this is an exhilarating new novel from the bestselling author of A Week in December and Birdsong.

About the Author
Sebastian Faulks has written nineteen books, of which A Week in December and The Fatal Englishman were number one in the Sunday Times bestseller lists. He is best known for Birdsong, part of his French trilogy, and Human Traces, the first in an ongoing Austrian trilogy. Before becoming a full-time writer, he worked as a journalist on national papers. He has also written screenplays and has appeared in small roles on stage. He lives in London.

Reviews
Most easily appreciated as a series of compelling short stories. Poignant, powerful and tender, they are lined by the pain and passion, hope and hardship, accident and design which make up the drama of an individual life * Mail on Sunday *
Most easily appreciated as a series of compelling short stories. Poignant, powerful and tender, they are lined by the pain and passion, hope and hardship, accident and design which make up the drama of an individual life -- John Koski * Mail on Sunday *
Faulks is a writer who gets better and better; he understands how to draw a reader in. * Daily Mail *
The storytelling is crisp, the characters sympathetic and the philosophical themes thought-provoking * Mail on Sunday *



Book Information
ISBN 9780099549222
Author Sebastian Faulks
Format Paperback
Page Count 304
Imprint Vintage
Publisher Vintage Publishing
Weight(grams) 213g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 129mm * 18mm