Skip to content

Bone Clocks

Bone Clocks

Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different
Click for full-size.

Bone Clocks

by David Mitchell

  • Used
  • Paperback
Condition
New (Condition varies from Fine to Near Fine. Please inquire as to specific condition)/N/A (volume is softcover)
ISBN 10
0812976827
ISBN 13
9780812976823
Seller
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
San Francisco, California, United States
Item Price
£14.45
Or just £13.01 with a
Bibliophiles Club Membership
£3.89 Shipping to USA
Standard delivery: 6 to 14 days

More Shipping Options

Payment Methods Accepted

  • Visa
  • Mastercard
  • American Express
  • Discover
  • PayPal

About This Item

Random House, 2015. Later Edition. Trade Paperback (i.e. 5-6 by 8-9 inch softcover). New (Condition varies from Fine to Near Fine. Please inquire as to specific condition)/N/A (volume is softcover). New

Synopsis

DAVID MITCHELL is the award-winning and bestselling author of The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet , Black Swan Green , Cloud Atlas , Number9Dream and Ghostwritten . Twice shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, Mitchell was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by TIME magazine in 2007. With KA Yoshida, Mitchell co-translated from the Japanese the international bestselling memoir, The Reason I Jump . He lives in Ireland with his wife and 2 children.

Reviews

On Nov 11 2014, CloggieDownunder said:
The Bone Clocks is the sixth novel by British author, David Mitchell. After an argument with her mother and an upsetting encounter with her unfaithful boyfriend, fifteen-year-old Holly Sykes intends to get as far from Gravesend as possible. But Holly is no ordinary teen, and a chance meeting with a strange old woman on a jetty leads to a promise with repercussions many years later.

The story is split into six parts with different narrators: a rebellious teen; a self-centred, self-serving young man; a British journalist hooked on the excitement of the Middle East; an arrogant writer with a guilty secret; an Horologist in his fortieth life; and an elderly grandmother. The narratives of those whose lives intersect with Holly’s relate the major events of her life in a roundabout way while, at the same time, telling a thrilling tale of opposing forces and the inevitable battle that ensues.

The tale is told over some six decades and jumps from small town England to a Swiss ski resort, Iraq, Hay, Columbia, Western Australia, Shanghai, Iceland, New York, Canada and Ireland. Mitchell touches on a myriad of subjects: teen angst, infatuation and true love, career/family balance, literary critics and book fairs, the curse of privilege, socially conscious pop idols, the world’s reliance on technology and the pervasiveness of the internet.

His characters comment on: ageing (It’s not just that you get old and your kids leave; it’s that the world zooms away and leaves you hankering for whatever decade you felt most comfy in”); religion (“..if you could reason with religious people, there wouldn’t be any religious people” and “Prayer may be a placebo for the disease of helplessness, but placebos can make you feel better”); and technological advances (“Some magic is normality you’re not yet used to”).

He gives them words of wisdom (“People are icebergs, with just a bit you can see and loads you can’t” and “Mum said I’d learn betrayals came in various shapes and sizes, but to betray someone’s dream is the unforgiveable one”) and some lovely descriptive prose (“The English Channel’s biro-blue; the sky’s the blue of snooker-chalk.”)

His characters are appealing and readers may find themselves wondering for some time just whose intentions are pure and whose are not; some develop in depth and integrity as the story progresses. Holly is easy to admire, resourceful and engaging; her use of the rolling pin is definitely a laugh-out-loud moment.

This is a wonderfully crafted novel, with mysterious happenings building the intrigue until things begin to fall into place with the fifth narrative. Fans of Mitchell’s earlier novels will delight in (and quite probably be excited by) the connections (characters, locations, themes) with this one. Once again, Mitchell gives the reader a brilliant novel and it will be interesting to see what he does next.

(Log in or Create an Account first!)

You’re rating the book as a work, not the seller or the specific copy you purchased!

Details

Bookseller
Borderlands Books US (US)
Bookseller's Inventory #
000-199895
Title
Bone Clocks
Author
David Mitchell
Format/Binding
Trade Paperback (i.e. 5-6 by 8-9 inch softcover)
Book Condition
New New (Condition varies from Fine to Near Fine. Please inquire as to specific condition)
Jacket Condition
N/A (volume is softcover)
Edition
Later Edition
Binding
Paperback
ISBN 10
0812976827
ISBN 13
9780812976823
Publisher
Random House
Place of Publication
New York, Ny
Date Published
2015

Terms of Sale

Borderlands Books

Books are usually shipped twice a week, on Tuesdays and Fridays. We accept Visa, Mastercard, Amercian Express, or personal checks and money orders by prior arrangement. If you are unsatisfied with your book because it is defective or not as described, please contact us before sending it back for a full refund.

About the Seller

Borderlands Books

Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Biblio member since 2006
San Francisco, California

About Borderlands Books

Located in San Francisco, Borderlands is one of the largest Science Fiction, Fantasy, Supernatural and Mystery specialty bookstores in the country. We carry new and used books, and we will special order almost anything. Our cheerful and knowledgeable staff will be happy to help you find the book you are looking for.

Glossary

Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:

Trade Paperback
Used to indicate any paperback book that is larger than a mass-market paperback and is often more similar in size to a hardcover...
New
A new book is a book previously not circulated to a buyer. Although a new book is typically free of any faults or defects, "new"...
Fine
A book in fine condition exhibits no flaws. A fine condition book closely approaches As New condition, but may lack the...

This Book’s Categories

tracking-