What if you could capture your memories and store them safely, then edit out the bad bits and live forever in the good parts of your past? That is what Arnold Ruben wants to do. He builds the Memory Machine with his daughter’s childhood at its heart, but as with all such great inventions something goes wrong. This novel starts as a wistfully charming exploration of teenage love and rebellion, a coming-of-age romance elegantly told and well perceived. Half way through this changes style completely as a nightmare dreamscape unfolds as seventeen year old Amaryllis is trapped in her father’s machine. Outside time, away from any tangible reality, she waits for … she doesn’t know what. Outside the Second World War has swallowed the golden days of childhood for her lover Ezra, who searches for years in an effort to find her. A strange and enthralling tale expertly told.
Arnold Ruben has created a memory machine, a utopia housed in a picture palace, where the happiest memories replay forever, a haven in which he and his precious daughter can shelter from the war-clouds gathering over 1937 Britain. But on the day of her seventeenth birthday Amaryllis leaves Warlock Hall and the world she has known and wakes to find herself in a desolate and disturbing place. Something has gone terribly wrong with her father's plan.
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'Sally Gardner's astonishing new novel for older teenagers The Double Shadow is intriguing, shocking and very funny. Gardner creates a cast of wonderful characters in rich, inventive and evocative prose' - Marilyn Brocklehurst, The Bookseller
'What a mysterious and haunting book The Double Shadow by Sally Gardner proved to be; despite being strangely unsettling this is a book rich in atmosphere and detail' - Vanessa Lewis, The Bookseller
'The Double Shadow is a brilliant, complex story of family bonds, love, cruelty, friendship and devastation - and of history and war' - Clare Poole, The Bookseller
'Sally Gardner has a wondrous, almost wizardly way with words, using simple prose infused with a touch of magic. Her characters are so vividly present... the result is a very special novel' - Teresa Majury, Lovely Treez Reads
'With a cast of glamourous, and warm-hearted characters this is a fast paced adventure, set during the Second World War, about a girl and a boy, and a memory machine that could alter time forever.' The Bookbag
Author
About Sally Gardner
Sally Gardner gained a first class degree at a leading London art college and became a successful theatre costume designer before illustrating and writing books. Her debut novel, I, Coriander won the Nestle Gold Award and she is also a Costa and Carnegie prize-winner. Her books have been translated all over the world and have sold over two million copies. Find Sally online at sallygardner.co.uk, or on Twitter @TheSallyGardner.
Her historical novel for older readers, I, Coriander, won the Smarties Children's Book Prize in 2005. Two thrillers both set at the time of the French Revolution, The Red Necklace and The Silver Blade, which was shortlisted for the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize in 2009, followed. Actor Dominic West ('The Wire') has bought the film rights to both titles.
Sally Gardner's stories for middle readers include Lucy Willow and the popular Magical Children series of six titles The Strongest Girl in the World, The Invisible Boy, The Boy with Magic Numbers, The Smallest Girl in the World, The Boy with the Lightning Feet, and The Boy who Could Fly, which are also available as audio books.
She has also written and illustrated picture books including The Fairy Catalogue, The Glass Heart, The Book of Princesses and Playtime Rhymes.
The Double Shadow is published in November 2011.
Sally Gardner continues to be an avid spokesperson for Dyslexia, working to change the way it is perceived by society. She is dyslexic and argues that it's not a disability, but a gift.
If you'd love to know more about Sally, click here to download a more detailed biography and Q&A.
To see a video of Sally talking about her book Fairy Shopping - CLICK HERE
Or watch a video of her talking about The Silver Blade:
