The Book That Broke The World
Long-listed for the 2018 Ampersand Prize
Sophie has had it with her good-for-nothing dad. He lies. He steals. He may even be capable of murder. But breaking reality is where she draws the line.
Sophie's father Max has sacrificed everything - even their relationship - to find Hermes Trimegistus' Books of Power. Now he's found the first, and the key to the others, and Sophie is horrified. When two palaeographers who helped him find the first Book of Power - the Book of Stories - go missing, Sophie teams up with their son Zebadiah to find out why. Their quest lands them in an infinite library, containing every story ever told. In a place where just opening a book is treacherous, getting to the end of the tale alive is never guaranteed. But Sophie and Zeb must do just that to get to the second of the Book of Power - the Book of Laws - before Max can use it to destroy the laws of physics. Their journey takes them to 1904, where the Book of Laws is being kept by dark magician, Alabaster Crouch. Stealing it from under Crouch's nose is one thing. Getting to it before Max does might be impossible - especially when Zeb finds himself trapped in the body of famous Theosophist Amelia Wood. Sophie would go to any lengths to save her dad from himself - even betray Zeb - but she's faced with an impossible choice. Because her dad doesn't just want to break reality, he wants to bring her mum back the dead. And there's almost nothing Sophie wouldn't do to see her mother again.
THE BOOK THAT BROKE THE WORLD is the first in a planned three-book adventure fantasy series. It is currently being submitted to agents and publishers.
(Picture ‘Tree of Time’ by Tomasz Alen Kopera)
