The Trick To Time

A heart-wrenching love story from the internationally bestselling author of My Name Is Leon. "There's a trick to time. You can make it expand or you can make it contract. Make it shorter or make it longer." 

"The "trick to time" is that it can expand or contract at will, and in creating a mature heroine with decades of history, De Waal has herself performed a feat of skilful comprehension."  -  The Guardian Review

Some moments you want to last forever. Some moments shape a life.   Mona is a young Irish girl in the big city, with the thrill of a new job and a room of her own in a busy boarding house. On her first night out in 1970s Birmingham, she meets William, a charming Irish boy with an easy smile and an open face. They embark upon a passionate affair, a whirlwind marriage - before a sudden tragedy tears them apart.

"The Trick to Time is frustratingly slow to start: no doubt purposefully, given the subject matter. There is perhaps a danger of losing a reader who does not know de Waal's word-mastery well.. [but] De Waal creates enough intrigue to keep us focused... It is a profound meditation on how our lives are made up of moments, but these moments have the capacity to hold entire lives."  -  Maxine Beneba Clarke, The Sydney Morning Herald

Decades later, Mona pieces together the memories of the years that separate them. But can she ever learn to love again? The Trick To Time is an unforgettable tale of grief, longing, and a love that lasts a lifetime.