A secretary, wartime London and a hidden magic bring historical experience into contact with an altered past.

Francis Spufford's premise invites readers to look twice at familiar streets: a city can hold both ordinary work and extraordinary possibility. The appeal is the meeting of historical detail and imaginative intervention. Choose this if you enjoy alternate history grounded in a lived urban setting.

WHO IS IT FOR?

For readers who like speculative premises with a darker or unsettling edge.