The Book of Guilt
On sale
15th May 2025
Price: £20
MORNING, AFTERNOON, NIGHT. THE MOTHERS ARE ALWAYS WATCHING . . .
‘Brilliant . . . Chidgey’s luxurious and unhurried prose stokes tension in a compulsive thriller’ Observer
‘Written with insight and brio, deftly balancing darkness and light, depth and pace’ Guardian
‘Chidgey writes with surgical precision and emotional weight . . . quietly devastating, fiercely intelligent and unforgettable’ Irish Times
‘Eloquent prose, rich characterizations, and knotty concepts – an emotional and intellectual tour de force’ Kirkus
‘Brilliant . . . you will race through this book in a single, breathless sitting’ Literary Review
England, 1979. Vincent, Lawrence and William are the last remaining residents of a secluded New Forest home, part of the government’s Sycamore Scheme. Every day, the triplets do their chores, play their games and take their medicine, under the watchful eyes of three mothers: Mother Morning, Mother Afternoon and Mother Night.
Their nightmares are recorded in The Book of Dreams.
Their lessons are taken from The Book of Knowledge.
And their sins are reported in The Book of Guilt.
All the boys want is to be sent to the Big House in Margate, where they imagine a life of sun, sea and fairground rides. But, as the government looks to shut down the Sycamore Homes, the triplets begin to question everything they have been told.
Gradually surrendering its dark secrets, The Book of Guilt is a profoundly unnerving exploration of belonging in a world where some lives are valued less than others.
‘What a book! Tense, inventive, mysterious and moving, The Book of Guilt poses big questions in the context of a rocketing plot. I loved it completely’ Karen Joy Fowler, author of Booth
‘Original, dark, clever and compelling‘ Mary Ann Sieghart, author of The Authority Gap
‘This is a compelling and terrifying novel whose alternative history engages chillingly with current possibilities. No one writes children better than Chidgey. She exactly gets their experimental cruelty and related innocence as they attempt to piece their world together’ Elizabeth Cook, author of Lux
‘Brilliant . . . Chidgey’s luxurious and unhurried prose stokes tension in a compulsive thriller’ Observer
‘Written with insight and brio, deftly balancing darkness and light, depth and pace’ Guardian
‘Chidgey writes with surgical precision and emotional weight . . . quietly devastating, fiercely intelligent and unforgettable’ Irish Times
‘Eloquent prose, rich characterizations, and knotty concepts – an emotional and intellectual tour de force’ Kirkus
‘Brilliant . . . you will race through this book in a single, breathless sitting’ Literary Review
England, 1979. Vincent, Lawrence and William are the last remaining residents of a secluded New Forest home, part of the government’s Sycamore Scheme. Every day, the triplets do their chores, play their games and take their medicine, under the watchful eyes of three mothers: Mother Morning, Mother Afternoon and Mother Night.
Their nightmares are recorded in The Book of Dreams.
Their lessons are taken from The Book of Knowledge.
And their sins are reported in The Book of Guilt.
All the boys want is to be sent to the Big House in Margate, where they imagine a life of sun, sea and fairground rides. But, as the government looks to shut down the Sycamore Homes, the triplets begin to question everything they have been told.
Gradually surrendering its dark secrets, The Book of Guilt is a profoundly unnerving exploration of belonging in a world where some lives are valued less than others.
‘What a book! Tense, inventive, mysterious and moving, The Book of Guilt poses big questions in the context of a rocketing plot. I loved it completely’ Karen Joy Fowler, author of Booth
‘Original, dark, clever and compelling‘ Mary Ann Sieghart, author of The Authority Gap
‘This is a compelling and terrifying novel whose alternative history engages chillingly with current possibilities. No one writes children better than Chidgey. She exactly gets their experimental cruelty and related innocence as they attempt to piece their world together’ Elizabeth Cook, author of Lux
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Reviews
This is a compelling and terrifying novel whose alternative history engages chillingly with current possibilities. No one writes children better than Chidgey. She exactly gets their experimental cruelty and related innocence as they attempt to piece their world together
Original, dark, clever and compelling
Chidgey conjures a vivid and atmospheric alternative version of Britain in the 1970s. Those who came of age in the era of Spirographs and Stickle Bricks will recognise taspects of this brilliant novel's world . . . The author is clearly interested in nature and nurture, otherness and belonging, and keeps the tension high throughout. If you're anything like me, you will race through this book in a single, breathless sitting
Shocking . . . will make you gasp
'A future classic from one of the most intriguing, inventive and compelling writers of our time. What a book . . . jaw-droppingly breathtaking'
Eloquent prose, rich characterizations, and knotty concepts - an emotional and intellectual tour de force . . . Chidgey forces readers to delve into moral questions concerning science, pragmatism, personal responsibility, and institutional evil. Then there's the novel's unavoidable, disquieting contemplation of just who is given equal right in any given society (including ours)
A compelling story that raises profound questions not only about the power of the state to dehumanise parts of our society but about our complicity in that power . . . The Book of Guilt is written with insight and brio, deftly balancing darkness and light, depth and pace
Compelling . . . brilliantly evokes a dystopian England. Chidgey's luxurious and unhurried prose stokes tension in a compulsive thriller with mamcabre hints at historical cases of scandalous cover-ups, unprincipled drug trials, eugenics, ethnic cleansing and genetic experimentation . . . Above all the novel is a powerful recreation of an off-kilter Britain at the end of the 1970s . . . it feels scarily momentous
[A] haunting blend of psychological fable, gothic parable, and slow-burn thriller . . . Chidgey writes with surgical precision and emotional weight . . . The result is a novel of conscience and consequence: quietly devastating, fiercely intelligent and unforgettable
I raced through Catherine Chidgey's latest in awe of her trademark gifts: propulsive plotting, psychological acuity, and a knack for the uncanny. But it's the novel's moral questions that linger long after reading - about legacy and history, science and fate - as explored through the voices of children whom society has deemed expendable. The Book of Knowledge literally infiltrated my dreams, as it will yours
What a book! Tense, inventive, mysterious and moving, The Book of Guilt poses big questions in the context of a rocketing plot. I loved it completely
An imaginative tour de force . . . wonderfully chilling. As ever with Ms Chidgey there are serious issues rumbling beneath, for instance the ethics of scientific research and the arbitrary assumptions about who might and might not possess a soul
I was gripped by this dystopic tale of triplets William, Lawrence and Vincent, brought up in a dilapidated institutional home by a group of 'Mothers', treated with a mysterious medicine and forbidden access to the outside world. The uncannily familiar 1970s setting is conjured with uneasy menace