Small Hours cover art

Small Hours

the spellbinding new novel from the author of ISAAC AND THE EGG

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Small Hours

By: Bobby Palmer
Narrated by: Stephen Mangan
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About this listen

 'Powerful' JOANNA GLEN
'Beautiful' KATE SAWYER
'A triumph' JENNIE GODFREY

The eagerly awaited new novel from Bobby Palmer, author of the critically acclaimed debut Isaac and the Egg.

If you stood before sunrise in this wild old place, looking through the trees into the garden, here's what you'd see:

A father and son, a fox standing between them.

Jack, home for the first time in years, still determined to be the opposite of his father.

Gerry, who would rather talk to animals than the angry man back under his roof.

Everything that follows is because of the fox, and because Jack's mother is missing. It spans generations of big dreams and lost time, unexpected connections and things falling apart, great wide worlds and the moments that define us.

If you met them in the small hours, you'd begin to piece together their story.

PRAISE FOR ISAAC AND THE EGG

'Truly one of the most beautiful stories you will ever read' Joanna Cannon

'Unique, tender and funny' Pandora Sykes

'A future classic' Clare Mackintosh

'Like nothing I've ever read before' Stylist

'An arresting debut novel about grief in the most wonderfully oblique way' Reverend Richard Coles

'Just magic' Kate Sawyer

'Quirky and raw' Grazia

(P)2024 Headline Publishing Group Ltd©2024 Bobby Palmer Family Life Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Magical Realism Fantasy Magic

Critic Reviews

A powerful story of losing ourselves and each other - and how the natural world can find us and put us back together again (Joanna Glen)
I devoured this in forty-eight hours, it being about my very favourite reading topic: dysfunctional families and the many ways in which they can both fracture and heal. Its connection to the natural world makes this extra-special and almost poetic. A triumph (Jennie Godfrey)
Lyrical and evocative, Small Hours is a book like no other, a beautiful testament to the importance of family and what it's truly like to be human (Awais Khan)
All stars
Most relevant
You listen to some audiobooks and you know you just have to own the words in print. Another very beautiful piece from Mr Palmer.

Lovely powerful story

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This made for an amazing audiobook.

I had started reading it about a year ago and truely enjoyed it, but once I pick it up again as an audio I really found I was able to immerse myself in the world at Mole End.

Bobby Palmer does a wonderful job balancing out the complexities of family life, personal expectations, and some of the nuanced ways we each view and interact with the world around us, especially during challenging times.

The small details of the world around us

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A beautiful story with unique and fascinating perspectives, that addresses the important question of focusing on what matters most in one's life and the slippage of time. Small hours is a wonderfully expressive book, a book of quite reflection. My only criticism is that it was little slow to progress at one point in the middle and my attention waned, but overall a very enjoyable read, and one I'll be recommended to others. Thanks for another amazing journey into the human experience Bobby Palmer, please keep writing!

Touching and beautiful

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With a similar feel to the wonderful, Isaac & the Egg, with questions going through your head the whole time, and ending with eyes full of tears, this was so beautiful. A little long in the middle but un-put-down-able in the last third. A great perspective of dementia and gratitude of the natural world, I loved it. I was hoping I wouldn't end up sobbing at some point like I did with Isaac & the Egg, but tears were fully shed and gratefully so.

Another tearjerker

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