Angelglass

David Barnett

Shifting and vivid, the story moves from present day to XVI century Prague and from gripping eco-thriller to lush historical novel. In both periods, an amnesiac tries to work out who he is and whom he can trust. You'll feel bereft each time you leave a time frame only to get engrossed as soon as you enter the next. An element of fantasy in the plot should not put off readers who do not usually read this type of book..

Extract

Compact discs scattered like the shattered tiles of a Pompeii bath-house, a dead looking PC forgotten in the corner. A tree tapping insistently on the leaded glass of the window. Silver birch.
The cascade of auburn curls on white cotton shoulders.
These things I name, I know. Words come unbidden, the right words.
These things I do not know: Who I am, what my name is, where I come from, where I am going. I feel I belong here, yet am out of place, out of time. Poutnik, they call me. The wanderer. The pilgrim. Always travelling, yet with no destination, no embarkation point, no stamp on my papers.

Parallels