Touch

by Claire North

Overview

Touch is an electrifying thriller by the author of The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August and 84K.



He tried to take my life. Instead, I took his.


It was a long time ago. I remember it was dark, and I didn't see my killer until it was too late. As I died, my hand touched his. That's when the first switch took place.


Suddenly, I was looking through the eyes of my killer, and I was watching myself die. Now switching is easy. I can jump from body to body, have any life, be anyone.


Some people touch lives. Others take them. I do both.


More by Claire North:
The Gameshouse
84K
The End of the Day
The Sudden Appearance of Hope
Touch
The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316335911
Publisher:	Orbit
Publication date:	08/04/2015
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	448
Sales rank:	566,757
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Claire North is a pseudonym for Catherine Webb, a Carnegie Medal-nominated author whose first book was written when she was just fourteen years old. She went on to write several other novels in various genres, before publishing her first major work as Claire North, The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, in 2014. It was a critically acclaimed success, receiving rave reviews and an Audie nomination, and was included in the Washington Post's Best Books of the Year list. Her next novel, Touch, was also in the Washington Post's Best Books of the Year, in 2015. Catherine currently works as a theatre lighting designer and is a fan of big cities, urban magic, Thai food and graffiti-spotting. She lives in London.

Editorial Reviews

"A brilliantly balanced knife's edge of a book - fast-paced and thrilling, it's somehow also languorous, thoughtful, intelligently intimate. Kepler is a thoroughly absorbing and sympathetic anti-hero, trying to minimize harm while striving for survival."—NPR Books on Touch

"Touch is a story within a story within a story and it's one of the cleverest, most compelling books I've read in a long time. The intoxicating voice, ingenious premise and intricate plot will have readers clamouring for a copy. Touch has bestseller written all over it and Claire North is one hell of a writer."—C. L. Taylor, author of The Accident on Touch

"Touch is fast, smart, cinematic and with a cracking central idea. This is absolutely destined to be one of the biggest thrillers of 2015... A very, very impressive second outing."—Rick O'Shea, radio presenter, on Touch

"Seriously I cannot get over how amazingly good Claire North is. I could have read this book forever. The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August was so smart, Touch is beyond genius. This will be one of THE books of 2015. Mark my words."—Bite the Book (Australia) on Touch

"The high stakes and breakneck pace of the plot will draw readers in, and the meditations on what it means to be human and to be loved will linger long after the last shot is fired."—Kirkus on Touch

"A work of sparkling originality that works both as mesmerising thriller and exploration of what it means, at the most profound level, to be human."—Alex Marwood, author of The Wicked Girls on Touch

"I was totally and utterly gripped, it's just extraordinary. Absolutely mesmerizing."—Clare Mackintosh, author of I Let You Go on Touch

"This novel is utterly engaging, addictive, and thought-provoking. The characters are superbly drawn, their interactions realistic and engaging."—Civilian Reader on Touch

"Fast-paced, imaginative...masterful."—Washington Post on Touch

"Little short of a masterpiece."—Independent (UK) on Touch

"Another thrilling leap into the unknown."—Toronto Sunday Star on Touch

"North's talent shines out." —Sunday Times on Touch

From the Publisher

2014-12-07
A dark thriller that asks readers to imagine whom they would be if they could be anyone. Literally. The entity known as Kepler has been hopping from body to body for centuries, ever since trauma threw him from his original, dying body into his murderer's. All it takes now is a moment of skin-to-skin contact to jump from one skin to the next. Mostly, Kepler sees these borrowed bodies and lives as a kind of hobby, something to fix up a bit before moving on. But Josephine Cebula has become something more, because somebody killed her while looking for the spirit temporarily inhabiting her flesh. That somebody has a file on Josephine and Kepler that's remarkably accurate—except for the part where it blames them for four murders. This fast-paced tale starts with a bang and continues with a bunch more of them. The pace never slows, and there are plenty of chases and fights, but the novel still reveals more and more depth as it goes along. North (The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, 2014) fully imagines how the long and varied life of a "ghost" could work to slowly strip away empathy for ordinary humans—as Kepler says, "consequences are for the flesh"—and could also create an intense yearning for human connection. The high stakes and breakneck pace of the plot will draw readers in, and the meditations on what it means to be human and to be loved will linger long after the last shot is fired.

Kirkus Reviews