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  • Published: 1 June 2021
  • ISBN: 9781784164188
  • Imprint: Black Swan
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 464
  • RRP: $22.99

A Traveller at the Gates of Wisdom




The story of all of us, stretching across two millennia. Imaginative, unique, heart-breaking, this is John Boyne at his most creative and compelling.

Some stories are universal. They play out across human history. And time is the river which will flow through them.

It starts with a family, a family which will mutate. For now, it is a father, mother and two sons. One with his father’s violence in his blood. One who lives his mother’s artistry. One leaves. One stays. They will be joined by others whose deeds will change their fate. It is a beginning.

Their stories will intertwine and evolve over the course of two thousand years – they will meet again and again at different times and in different places. From distant Palestine at the dawn of the first millennium to a life amongst the stars in the third. While the world will change around them, their destinies will remain the same. It must play out as foretold. It is written.

A Traveller at the Gates of Wisdom is the extraordinary new novel from acclaimed writer John Boyne. Ambitious, far-reaching and mythic, it introduces a group of characters whose lives we will come to know and will follow through time and space until they reach their natural conclusion.

  • Published: 1 June 2021
  • ISBN: 9781784164188
  • Imprint: Black Swan
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 464
  • RRP: $22.99

About the author

John Boyne

John Boyne was born in Ireland in 1971. He is the author of eleven novels for adults, six for younger readers and a collection of short stories. Perhaps best known for his 2006 multi-award-winning book The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas, John’s other novels, notably The Absolutist and A History of Loneliness, have been widely praised and are international bestsellers. Most recently, The Heart's Invisible Furies was a Richard & Judy Bookclub word-of-mouth bestseller, and A Ladder to the Sky was shortlisted for the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year Award in association with Listowel Writers’ Week.

His novels are published in over fifty languages.

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Praise for A Traveller at the Gates of Wisdom

An ambitious, epic sweep of a book...John Boyne brilliantly and economically creates a sense of history and place... an enthralling read

S: The Sunday Express Magazine

This novel combines the pleasures of good old-fashioned storytelling with the excitement of finding a writer who makes you look at the world anew

Daily Express

Throbs with enduring love, warmth and passion.

The Irish Times