Peaces is about what it means to be seen by another person—whether it’s your lover or a stranger on a train—and what happens when things you thought were firmly in the past turn out to be right beside you.
This week’s first giveaway is a 2021 novel by Liverpool Literary Festival headliner, Helen Oyeyemi. Widely considered a literary prodigy, Helen wrote her debut novel The Icarus Girl whilst studying for her A-levels. It was published to critical acclaim in 2005, by which time she had already had two of her plays published by Methuen. Subsequent novels include White is for Witching, winner of the 2009 Somerset Maugham Prize, and Mr Fox, about a struggling novelist’s obsession with his imaginary muse. She was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2013, and was named one of Granta’s Best Young British Novelists the same year.
When Otto and Xavier Shin declare their love, an aunt gifts them a trip on a sleeper train to mark their new commitment—and to get them out of her house. Setting off with their pet mongoose, Otto and Xavier arrive at their sleepy local train station, but quickly deduce that The Lucky Day is no ordinary locomotive. Their trip on this former tea-smuggling train has been curated beyond their wildest imaginations, complete with mysterious and welcoming touches, like ingredients for their favorite breakfast. They seem to be the only people on board, until Otto discovers a secretive woman who issues a surprising message. As further clues and questions pile up, and the trip upends everything they thought they knew, Otto and Xavier begin to see connections to their own pasts, connections that now bind them together.
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