Weyward: Discover the unique, original and unforgettable fiction debut novel of 2023 – a BBC 2 Between the Covers Book Club Pick and #2 Times Bestseller

Perhaps one day, she said, there would be a safer time. When women could walk the earth, shining bright with power, and yet live. But until then I should keep my gift hidden, move through only the darkest corners of the world, like a beetle through soil.

Altha. A strange name. Soft and yet powerful. Like an incantation.

Sight is a funny thing. Sometimes it shows us what is before our eyes. But sometimes it shows us what has already happened, or will yet come to pass.

Time was funny like that, Violet thought. Speeding up and slowing down at the strangest of moments. Sometimes, she had the odd sensation that her whole life was happening at once.

Recently, Violet had had the disturbing realisation that she was old.

It was her mother and grandmother that she longed for. She hadn’t known either of them, not really, and yet she felt their loss as keenly as a missing limb. For

I might have been another of the crows, who welcomed me silently with their glittering eyes.

sees that it is an old carriage clock, swathed in cobwebs. Its hands are stopped; frozen forever at six o’clock.

He climbed down from the stand slowly, and I saw his age in his faltering movements. The intimidating figure I remembered from childhood was diminished.