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An unflinching tale of resistance in dark political times

Caroline Ambrose, The Bath Novel Award

What if reading the wrong book could get you arrested?

Expressing the wrong opinion in a decaying city controlled by the first General can have terrible consequences. Clara Winters knows this better than anyone. When she was a child, her father was taken by the Authorisation Bureau for the crime of teaching banned books to his students. She is still haunted by his disappearance.

Now, Clara teaches at the same university, determined to rebel against the regime that cost her family so much – and her weapons are the banned books her father left behind. But she has started something dangerous, something that brings her to the attention of the Authorisation Bureau and its most feared interrogator, Major Jackson. The same man who arrested Clara’s father.

With her rights stripped away, in a country where democracy has been replaced with something more sinister, will she be the next to disappear?

Winner – Northern Writers Award

Longlisted – Bath Novel Awards