The Second Sight of Zachary Cloudesley: The spellbinding BBC Between the Covers book club pick

Product Information

A dashing, magical debut . . . intricately plotted, and peopled with intriguing characters' - Daily Mail A beautifully crafted historical mystery that will take the reader from 18th century London, across Europe and, finally, to the bustling city of Constantinople." also isn't entirely accurate because Constantinople again plays a fairly minor role in the grand scheme of the book. It's not finally ends in Constantinople, mystery solved and the story wraps up. That's almost a mid point and after they return to England. I would say the book spends more time discussing Mrs Morley on Lundey than in Constantinople. It’s a rare book indeed that doesn’t transport you far away from the everyday, taking you on a richly imaginative journey, whether it’s into someone’s life, their innermost thoughts or to magical places that defy the intervention of the ordinary. As I said, it’s an ambitious story, with so much in it that I think it could have been broken up into a couple of books.

Editor Eloisa Clegg acquired UK and Commonwealth rights from David Headley at DHH. Publication is slated for summer 2022. Zachary begins to experience visions, a sense of what the future holds, and the uneasy and troubling gift of knowing the darkness residing within others, their regrets, hopes and their machinations. Abel finds himself with little choice but to travel to Constantinople but Zachary can feel the betrayal, fear and danger that awaits his father. As communications from father to son begin to cease and years pass, Zachary sets off to follow his father's journey to Constaninople, determined to find him despite the rumours of his death, as he strives to make sense of his visions. Will he succeed in finding his father? Lusk's world building is terrific, there is a wide and disparate stellar cast of distinct characters that include the eccentric Aunt Frances with her menagerie, and the courageous apprentice Tom with his own secrets.

Browse reviews by Publisher

Bob Mortimer wins 2023 Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction with The Satsuma Complex I cannot believe I am telling you of it now, but to convince you that Zachary is remarkable, gifted in ways even the child himself cannot perceive.’ The particular delight of Sean Lusk’s The Second Sight of Zachary Cloudsley is that it manages to be all those things in one captivatingly alive book, marrying many of the staples of life such as great grief, loss, joy and first love with a story that’s thrillingly expansive and rich with intrigue and set in mid-eighteenth century London, Europe and the glitteringly exotic climes of Ottoman-era Constantinople. I think the characterisation was good as regards Zachary, Aunt Francis, Mrs Morley and Tom, but throughout it all, the idea of Zachary displaying powers of second sight seemed to be lost along the way. Yes, there were really good descriptions of Turkey, the landscape, political structures and warring factions along the way. However, underneath it all seemed to run a story of same sex love and commitment which, honestly, I wonder for its inclusion.

Growing up amongst the cogs and springs of his father's workshop, Zachary is intensely curious, ferociously intelligent, unwittingly funny and always honest - perhaps too honest. But when a fateful accident leaves six-year-old Zachary nearly blinded, Abel is convinced that the safest place for his son is in the care of his eccentric Aunt Frances and her menagerie of weird and wonderful animals. And so the makers of automata found themselves urged to make ever more human androids, leading to Von Kempelen’s chess playing automaton, ‘The Turk,’ seemingly able to think through the complexities of a chess game and play the world’s grand masters. That this automaton turned out to be a fraud is perhaps less surprising than that for almost 80 years many of the world’s cleverest people believed in its remarkable abilities. Why did they do so? The answer, I think, is because they wanted to believe that an automaton was capable of rivalling, even exceeding human intelligence. When a life-changing accident happens to Zachary, Abel blames himself but, it leaves Zachary with yet another gift, one where he can see the future. To protect his son Abel makes a bad choice that is jumped upon by someone in high government and puts Abel in a terrible position.

Dystopian Fiction Books Everyone Should Read: Explore The Darker Side of Possible Worlds and Alternative Futures

You can see where this is all leading. Belief in magic should sit uneasily with belief in science. Yet this was an era in which alchemy, the ancient ‘science’ of the pursuit of the philosopher’s stone and the elixir of life lingered on, and while the new science often disparaged the old, it could not quite throw off the traces of magical expectation that so often accompanies scientific breakthrough. Today we still await the ‘magic’ of nuclear fusion to give us limitless, safe and almost free energy, after all. It is unusual yet totally captivating with an interesting plot and good pacing. All the characters were intriguing and although the main focus is on Zachary Cloudesley and his father Abel the side characters also had such intetesting and different tales to tell and yet their lives were inextricably linked. At its considerable heart, The Second Sight of Zachary Cloudsley is a novel that examines, with great empathy and understanding what it means to be connected, not in a charming send a Christmas card once a year kind of way, but in an everything on the line fashion.Perhaps,’ said Abel, reluctant to believe that Zachary suffered from such an outlandish affliction. I was mesmerised by this whole story, Zachary and his second sight and the inventions that were part of his life. There are so many personal stories going on in the book. Yet because each of these characters is so unique, it never became overpowering or confused.

The year is 1754. He has had an interesting life already, having spent time in Constantinople, and as the story progresses, he ends up there again. But first, the baby. Zachary. His mother, Alice, dies as she delivers him. Abel doesn’t know what to do. I’d assumed that these automata were mere luxuries for the very rich but in researching my novel I discovered that they were about much more than adornment or entertainment. They were manifestations of technical prowess, projections of national power, celebrations of Enlightenment science and, most surprisingly, regarded by some as experiments in the search for eternal life. Clegg said: "This is a rich, detailed and vibrant tale of a young man finding himself. It has everything you would want: wonderfully realised descriptions, unforgettable characters and a storyline that encompasses the essence of that human yearning for love and acceptance. And with a dash of magical realism, it is original, complex, funny and thoroughly immersive. I cannot wait for readers to fall in love with Zachary Cloudesley." The prose is very well written, and it is genuinely funny, but the plot wasn't strong enough to hold attention. The father-son relationship is one of the book's strongest features, and I very much felt for Abel's plight.

Browse articles by Author

A beautifully crafted historical mystery that will take the reader from 18th century London, across Europe and, finally, to the bustling city of Constantinople. It’s not a bad description. Alice’s Aunt Frances adored her niece and she lavishes the same attention on Zachary, wanting to whisk him away from his father. She is a colourful character with another storyline about her independence. She conspires to encourage Abel to return to Constantinople, leaving Zachary with her. Longlisted for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction 2023 and the Goldsboro Books Glass Bell Award 2023.