ge Turner Awards, A Book in Time is a truly enchanting work of magical realism by "a hugely talented storyteller." This exceptional novel has been described by publishers, agents, and literary judges alike as "visionary", "ambitious", "magical", "unique," "refreshing". You will never have read anything like it before. And if you're a lover of books, or you work in a profession to do with books, you will be hooked from the first sentence. Early reviews have described this most unusual novel as a masterpiece.

A Book in Time is a captivating love story about a book's intense longing over two centuries for the mother who bore it. Adopted by many different owners - some loving, others unscrupulous - this book (the first edition of a volume of poems entitled 'The Burning Ones') longs to be reunited with an elderly author who cherished it as if it was her only child. As the book passes through many hands, it observes not only the way people treat it, but each other, and in all of this, its mother's love sets the high standard against which everything is lovingly judged.

In a strange demonstration of synchronicity, the author - Mark Stibbe - experienced the culmination of his own search for a mother after completing this novel. Having been orphaned in 1960, and having never met or known his birth mother, Mark met her for the first time at the end of 2021, shortly before she died. So, there is more than a hint of Mark's own search in the book's quest for its author.

In the case of A Book in Time, in perhaps a unique way, art has magically imitated life even as life has magically imitated art.