An extraordinary speculative debut, evocative of Cloud Atlas, about time travel, kinship, queer love, faith, the climate crisis, the meaning of fate and the mysterious forces at play within our lives.
In interwar London, a young wife-Bea-helps her husband in their silverware shop. Her days are punctuated by customers who, more often than not, come to look but not buy, and the occasional visitations of an angel who appears only to her, and inspires cryptic entries in her red notebook.
In contemporary London, a young woman-Kay-works temp jobs, parties with her two beloved friends, and battles a pervasive, free-floating anxiety. At the library, the grocery store, on the bus, she spots figures whom she imagines have specifically sought her out. At her grandfather's house, she finds a red notebook that seems to detail the life of an ancestor who was also visited by a mystical being.
One hundred years later, in a London wracked by climate change, a young woman-Ess-has left medical school to live in an off-grid outpost called the Basin, a collective devoted to preparing for the end times. On her days off she helps an elderly family friend, Mr. J, go through his personal archives, and here, she uncovers a red notebook. Soon after, she receives a mysterious invitation to visit a nearby commune, to assist with a project that will irrevocably alter the lives of all three women and reveal the distinct path that connects them through history.
Epic in scope, with unforgettable characters and a rare clarity of vision, A Line You Have Traced asks profound questions about how we might survive and engage with the world, and with each other, before it's too late. ROISIN DUNNETT is a writer from London, England. Her fiction pamphlet Animal, Vegetable was published in 2021 by Broken Sleep Books. Her short fiction has been published in Prototype, Hotel, Ambit, Vittles and elsewhere. She has an MA in Creative and Life Writing at Goldsmiths where she was longlisted for the Pat Kavanagh Prize in 2022.
