The Silver Wind

Nina Allan's novel moves through time by way of watches and clocks, which here serve as machines for travelling between alternate versions of life. Its story follows the unreliable recollections of its characters and the paths they did not take. Martin and Dora Newland are bound together in shifting ways, at different points siblings, lovers and friends, and both are pushed around by the forces of time and fate. Owen Andrews, a watchmaker who is also a time traveller and a government agent, adds another thread. The separate narratives fit together like the gears of a finely made timepiece, gradually revealing a world shaped by missed chances, severed bonds and private grief. The book comes from the author of The Rift and The Dollmaker.