One summer afternoon, a runaway teenager encounters an old woman who offers her tea and asks, in return, for asylum. Only decades later will the girl understand just what kind of asylum she meant... Spanning the life of Holly Sykes from 1984 to 2043, this is the tale of a courageous woman's path from adolescence in Gravesend to old age on the west coast of Ireland; a path that in many ways is not out of the ordinary, with its twists of fortune, loves and friendships, sorrows and joys. Except there is something different about Holly: at intervals in her life, she hears voices in her head, sees people that no-one else can and witnesses events that break all the rules of reality. What she doesn't realize is that she is an unwitting player in an almighty battle - and might prove to be its decisive weapon.

In his extraordinary new novel, David Mitchell pierces the veil between body and soul and invites us to transcend the limits of our knowledge. Metaphysical thriller, searing portrait of our times and chilling warning, The Bone Clocks brings us face to face with our own mortality and humanity's destructive appetites. Fizzing with the inventiveness, wit and storytelling wizardry that have made David Mitchell one of the most feted writers of our times, this is fiction at its most mind-stretching, moving and enthralling.