I Hear A New World

Extraordinary Susanna Clarke, bestselling author of Piranesi and Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

A continuation of The Great When; a dark and beguiling tour through the streets of London - fictional and real - by a legend of modern fantasy

It’s 1958. A time of Rock and Roll, of protest, riot and change… and London is full of danger. Dennis Knuckleyard is finally growing up, and above all he wants to leave the Great When in the past. For nine years, he’s avoided so much as thinking about the magical shadow version of London, managing even to palm off what should’ve been his last souvenir of that experience – an iron key he secretly brought back.

But while Dennis may believe he’s done with the Great When, it’s not done with him. The unsuspecting rube now in possession of the key has discovered its magical properties, bringing forth mythic, occult beings into Dennis’s London and sparking riots in the capital. Worse still, Dennis hears his first love Grace has returned to the Great When to investigate strange happenings in both cities.

Desperate to keep Grace safe and return London to normal, Dennis follows her back into the hidden city. But once it has him back, The Great When will not let him go away again so easily. He and Grace must fight to set things right or forever lose everything.

Electrifying, absurd, magical and more true than you might believe, I Hear A New World takes the reader back to Long London for a thrilling and fantastical second instalment.

Praise for The Great When: the first book in a new series by Sunday Times-bestseller and icon, Alan Moore.

'A breathless time-travelling classic. Savage, humane, comic, terrifying' Iain Sinclair

‘Brilliant and so powerfully imaginative’ Adam Curtis

'A weird book and a complete joy' Mariana Enríquez

'Extraordinary . . . very funny . . . It does what fantasy does best which is show us something beyond our experience' Susanna Clarke