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  • Published: 10 October 2023
  • ISBN: 9781787304000
  • Imprint: Harvill Secker
  • Format: Trade Paperback
  • Pages: 304
  • RRP: $34.99

Light Over Liskeard

From the Sunday Times bestselling author of Captain Corelli’s Mandolin




An novel poking fun at modern mores and delving into what we should really treasure in our precarious lives. From the bestselling author of Captain Corelli's Mandolin.

Sometimes we must look to the past to survive the future.

A novel about what really matters in life from the bestselling author of Captain Corelli's Mandolin

Q wants a simpler and safer life. His work as a quantum cryptographer for the government has led him to believe a crisis is imminent for civilisation and he's looking for somewhere to ride out what's ahead.

He buys a ruined farmhouse in Cornwall and begins to build his own self-sufficient haven. Over the course of this quest he meets the eccentric characters who already live on the moors nearby - including the park ranger in charge of the reintroduced lynxes and aurochs that roam the area; a holy man waiting for the second coming on top of a nearby hill; an Arthurian knight on horseback and the amorous ghost of an Edwardian woman who haunts the farmhouse.

As life in the cities gets more complicated, and our systems of electronic control begin to fall apart, Q flourishes in the wild Cornish countryside. His new way of life brings him back in tune with his teenage children, his ex-wife, and his own sense of who he is. He also grows close to Eva, energetic and enchanting, who is committed to her own quest for love and meaning.

In this entertaining and heart-warming novel Louis de Bernières pokes fun at modern mores, and makes us reconsider what is really precious in our short and precarious lives.

  • Published: 10 October 2023
  • ISBN: 9781787304000
  • Imprint: Harvill Secker
  • Format: Trade Paperback
  • Pages: 304
  • RRP: $34.99

About the author

Louis de Bernieres

Louis de Bernières is the bestselling author of Captain Corellis Mandolin, which won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize Best Book in 1995. His most recent books are So Much Life Left Over and The Dust That Falls From Dreams, the short story collection Labels and the poetry collection The Cat in the Treble Clef.

Also by Louis de Bernieres

See all

Praise for Light Over Liskeard

De Bernieres is a singular, cherishable voice

Mail on Sunday

The future might look bleak, but Bernière’s dystopia is replete with obscure charm, endearing personalities and flights of fantasy

SAGA, Book of the Month

Beguiling...Set in a jollier dystopia than the norm, it tells the tale of "Q", a cryptographer who takes refuge from the madding crowd in Cornwall

Observer

A knockabout satire with twists aplenty

Mail on Sunday

Heaps of old-fashioned adventure

The Times

In a career that began with a magic realism-inspired Latin American trilogy, took off with the historical romance Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, and has gone down such byways as Red Dog, a rather heartwarming tale of an Australian sheepdog, and Notwithstanding, a collection of determinedly eccentric stories of English village life, De Bernières has shown himself to be full of surprises, conjuring narratives of considerable charm and impressive sweep.

Guardian

A wonder worthy of Wyndham...wry, wise

Daily Mail

de Bernières has an undeniable talent for creating an achingly romantic affair from what may appear to be a mundane midlife crisis

Independent

Marked by de Bernieres’ customary light touch and wry humour...This quirky novel is timely... a feelgood story about friendship and love – vintage de Bernieres.

Daily Mirror

Funny, clever, and optimistic, Light Over Liskeard asks us to consider what really matters in life

Church Times

[A] heartwarming but also funny novel [that] makes us consider what we should hold precious in our short lives

Great British Life, *Books of the Year*

A knockabout satire with twists aplenty

Mail on Sunday