The World Was All Before Them

Description

There are more than seven billion people on the planet. They have, on average, over 100 billion nerve cells in their brains and 5 litres of blood pumping through their bodies. Their skeletons are made up of 206 bones and their hearts beat approximately 72 times per minute. They are connected to each other in more ways than they can possibly imagine. Philip is one of them. Sue is another. This is their story. It is the story of one year and two lives and what it means to live in them. It is a story about love and courage, risk and betrayal. It is a story that will make you look at the world with new eyes.

Matthew Reynolds is the author of Designs for a Happy Home: A Novel in Ten Interiors. He has also written books of literary criticism and many essays in the LRB and elsewhere. He lived in London, Cambridge, Pisa and Paris before settling in Oxford where he teaches in the university and is a fellow of St Anne's College.

A fascinating, strange and formally delightful novel * Independent on Sunday * Extraordinary ... Disturbingly, stunningly real * Saga * Stylistically ambitious ... This contemplative novel occasionally reaches a more engaging, vibrant pitch * Literary Review * Reynolds' prose is always lucid and elegant ... He negotiates the ethical and practical dilemmas of medicine, and the grey area between creativity, and charlatanism in art, with great aplomb * Times Literary Supplement *