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This, My Second Life
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  • Published: 8 January 2026
  • ISBN: 9781804957448
  • Imprint: Penguin
  • Format: Audio Download
  • RRP: $34.99

This, My Second Life

Formats & editions
Hardback
13 Jan 2026
EBook
8 Jan 2026
Audiobook
8 Jan 2026
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Beautifully written, spare and elegiac, a literary debut novel set in Cornwall in which a young man comes to terms with a life-changing injury.

Twenty-year-old Jago Trevarno is living a simple life in Cornwall with his uncle following a life-changing brain injury.

Slowly adjusting to the reality of his new life, he gets caught up in the murky world of local villain, Bill Sligo, who appears to have designs on Jago’s uncle’s farm and in particular a field.

Jago determines to find out why Bill Sligo wants the field – and in so doing puts his own life in grave danger.


Beautifully written, spare and elegiac, filled with shafts of light and darkness as well as the beauty and harshness of the Cornish landscape, Jago’s journey is one of hope, acceptance and of resilience as he comes to terms with this, his second life.
  • Published: 8 January 2026
  • ISBN: 9781804957448
  • Imprint: Penguin
  • Format: Audio Download
  • RRP: $34.99
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About the author

Patrick Charnley

Patrick Charnley grew up in the English West Country where he fell in love with Cornwall, the setting for this novel. While convalescing from a cardiac arrest that very nearly ended his life and left him with a brain injury, he began to write. He now lives in north London with his wife and children.
This, My Second Life is his first novel.

PC

Praise for This, My Second Life

Touching, richly evocative. A remarkable debut novel

Patrick Gale

Utterly absorbing, beautifully written and insightful in unexpected ways. This, My Second Life is a moving must-read

Jennie Godfrey

Thrilling and tender, I enjoyed every word. Jago is a very original memorable narrator, full of warmth and optimism

Julie Myerson

Deceptively simple yet completely compulsive. I was absorbed by Jago's story and the world around him

Gill Hornby

An unexpectedly life affirming story woven into the fabric of a thriller

Esther Freud

An intense and unexpected debut. A beautiful piece of writing

Amanda Craig

The tension of a thriller and the tenderness of a recovery story ... a hypnotic read, gentle, generous and compelling.

Mail on Sunday

An astonishing debut of recovery…The prose is spare and beautiful, the narrative simple but sound – it is as finely wrought as poetry… Jago’s distinctive voice emerges, a true and clear and entirely convincing creation, always reaching towards the light and life

The Guardian

[An] elegant, infinitely touching debut novel

Saga Magazine

The novel is simply rewarding

Times Literary Supplement

It succeeds as a work of art

The Week

[A] powerful debut

The Telegraph

A beautifully written, authentic and deeply affecting portrait of adversity, care and hope that will appeal to fans of Benjamin Myers' The Offing and Claire Keegan's Small Things Like These.

The Mail