The Misheard World - by Aliya Whiteley (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

An interrogation of a famed spy by a military agent reveals deeper secrets about the beginnings of the war--and about the world itself--in the latest groundbreaking novel from the Arthur C. Clarke Award-nominated Aliya Whiteley.

Before wars are won, they must be witnessed.

Elize Janview is a soldier, one of the few survivors of an unimaginably terrible weapon, which ended the long détente between the North and the South and plunged them back into all-out war. She enlisted with a dream of finding those responsible, of somehow getting revenge for the deaths of everyone she knew, but was posted to guard the prison at Crag, the fortress of the South, which has never fallen to the enemy.

Janview's life is transformed when a rough wooden box is delivered to Crag, holding the performer and spy Marius Mondegreen, agent of the North: the Misheard Word, who can read minds, breathe fire, and make objects appear and disappear. Janview is to witness Mondegreen's interrogation by his captor, the beautiful and cruel Allynx Syld, who promises the end of the war. As recorder - and by degrees participant - in the interrogation, Janview comes to question everything she knew about the war, and the very world she lives in...

Review Quotes

"A quirky, unsettling work from one of the most original writers of speculative fiction in Britain today." --The Guardian

"A wonderfully alienating experience." -SFX, five star review

"Brilliant in its playful inventiveness." -The FT

"One of the books of the year. Superb, on every level." -Buzz Magazine

About the Author

Aliya Whiteley is one of the most exciting talents in the UK. She is the author of six books of speculative fiction, including the Arthur C. Clarke Award shortlisted Skyward Inn and The Loosening Skin, and also The Beauty, which was shortlisted for both a Shirley Jackson Award and the Otherwise Award. She lives in Sussex with her husband and daughter.