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Books

How on earth did David Mitchell's third-rate fantasy make the Man Booker longlist?

A review of The Bone Clocks, by David Mitchell. This restless new novel is full of student satire and undercooked fantasy

6 September 2014

9:00 AM

6 September 2014

9:00 AM

The Bone Clocks David Mitchell

Sceptre, pp.595, £20, ISBN: 9780340921609

Reincarnation has hovered over David Mitchell’s novels since the birth of his remarkable career. His haunting debut novel, Ghostwritten (1999), featured a disembodied spirit that wandered around making itself at home in other people’s souls. Transmigration spread throughout that book — the lives of its characters intertwined in brilliantly intricate ways — and has continued to throughout Mitchell’s fiction.

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