SHORTLISTED FOR THE PRIX JOSEPH KESSEL 2020
SHORTLISTED FOR THE GRAND PRIX DE L’ACADÉMIE FRANÇAISE 2019
SHORTLISTED FOR THE GRAND PRIX DES BLOGUEURS LITTÉRAIRES 2019
Chosen as one of French booksellers’ Top 5 Titles of Autumn 2019 in Livres Hebdo
‘On the mountain, the only monsters are the ones you take with you.’
Stan has been hunting for fossils since the age of six. Now, in the summer of 1954, he hears a story he cannot forget: the skeleton of a huge creature – a veritable dragon – lies deep in an Alpine glacier. And he is determined to find it.
But Stan is no mountaineer. To complete his dangerous expedition, he must call on loyal friend Umberto, who arrives with an eccentric young assistant, and expert guide Gio. Time is short: the four men must descend before the weather turns. As bonds are forged and tested, the hazardous quest for the earth’s lost creatures becomes a journey into Stan’s own past.
‘Breathless and heartbreaking...the story is thrilling and wrenching by turns...Tracing a treasure that waits just out of reach, A Hundred Million Years and a Day speaks to the adventurers within us all’ — Foreword Reviews
‘Poignant, short but powerful … explores ideas of comradeship, the persistence of childhood trauma and the nature of obsession.’ — Sunday Times
‘brief, unusual, but supremely effective… explores the limits of human physical endurance with total conviction.’ —The Tablet
‘This is an unforgettable novel, beautifully written and utterly gripping.’ — Mail on Sunday
‘A sublime and beautiful book’ — Carys Davies, author of West
‘Every line is golden. It’s impossible to describe it without selling it short. It is a small, perfect thing, beautiful and devastating’ — Sara Taylor, author of The Shore
‘Spare, elegant and poetic, this slender novel is quietly devastating’ — Daily Mail
