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Reading lists

What to read after The Handmaid’s Tale

The Comet Seekers

One Day meets The Time Traveler's Wife in this spellbinding, magical debut novel about love, loss, hope and heartbreak that shows us that the world can be as desolate or as beautiful as the comets that pass overhead.

A magical debut…a gorgeous novel that should resonate with fans of Audrey Niffenegger’s The Time Traveller’s Wife… A breathtaking tale full of love, hope and heartbreak. You’ll be utterly captivated from the first page

Beautiful, sad, moving, fascinating and original. I loved it.

Exquisitely layered, thrilling novel, which leaps across centuries and continents to delve into the role of destiny and the elusiveness of perception and memory.

A spellbinding tale of love and loss, aglimmer with passion and melancholy.

A beautifully imagined and original conceit…. There is no escaping the undeniable artistry of this book, a clever triumvirate of love, ghosts and time-travel.

Her laconic tone and measured prose belie the novel’s dramatic content… Sedgwick is a highly evocative writer who makes excellent use of nature to showcase her themes… Her charming debut maps the world’s big questions on an even larger plane’

A fluid narrative voice, pointedly lyrical.  And, as in the work of contemporary fabulists like Kelly Link, Helen Oyeyemi and Audrey Niffenegger, the real intersects matter-of-factly with the supernatural…Many of this novel’s pleasures have to do with teasing out the implications of Sedgwick’s intricate pattern…This web of associations, spun by recurring images and figures, lends a different spin to the idea of a love that’s meant to be.

Haunting and beautiful, THE COMET SEEKERS follows a constellation of lives from modern Antarctica to medieval England, all of them connected by an extraordinary mystery hidden deep in the past. A captivating story, deftly told, about those who are driven to explore, and those who must stay behind

Helene Wecker, New York Times bestselling author of THE GOLEM AND THE JINNI

The Comet Seekers is a brave and tender debut from one of the brightest new stars of the literary world. It's one of the most vivid, original and magical books I've read in years

Readers will be enveloped in the magical world that Sedgwick creates and will grapple with the big issues she tackles—love, family, freedom, and loneliness. Those who are drawn to intimate stories of family drama are sure to respond to this beautiful, character-driven novel

Sedgwick’s balance of scientific accuracy, artful use of language and storytelling skill makes this tale glow… A timeless, intimate and magical book.

·         A book that reveals its subtle complexities gradually as it gives way to a central story that feels at once astronomical and homespun.

[The Comet Seekers] is full of life: languorous, homely, fleeting and heavily affected by its past.

[The Comet Seekers is] my favourite of this year. Her story of many lives linked by comets over earth is brave, tender, vivid and magical.

Beautiful, very moving and different from anything else.

Helen Sedgwick was a research scientist working in the field of biophysics before writing her debut novel, The Comet Seekers. She has an MLitt in Creative Writing from Glasgow University and a PhD in Physics from Edinburgh University, and has received a Scottish Book Trust New Writers Award. Having grown up in London, she now lives in the Scottish Highlands. The Growing Season is her second novel.

Two lives. One night sky. 
 
Róisín and François first meet in the snowy white expanse of Antarctica, searching for a comet overhead. 
 
While Róisín grew up in a tiny village in Ireland, ablaze with a passion for science and the skies, François was raised by his restless young mother, who dreamt of new worlds but was unable to turn her back on her past. 
 
As we loop back through their lives we see their paths cross as they come closer and closer to this moment, brought together by the infinite possibilities of the night sky.

Helen Sedgwick

So enjoyed The Growing Season. . . Galloped my way to the conclusion, despite wishing it would never end. Smart &amp; provocative.

The Growing Season poses a compelling what-if about the female body, technology and power

You know when you read the back of a book and your neck hairs go all tingly? This is one of them. . . an inventive tale that'll leave you contemplating what the future holds.

Sedgwick describes her off-kilter world brilliantly and she considers the big ideas in her novel from all sides like a true scientist. . .  It’s smart and thoughtful writing – a novel to make you consider deeply what family means and what the not-too-distant future might hold.

I adored ex-physicist Sedgwick’s dazzling debut literary novel, The Comet Seekers, a critically-acclaimed, super-smart love story that’s anchored in an Antarctic scientific research centre but spans centuries and multiple locations. Her new one is just as brainy and ambitious… Clever stuff

This is an intriguing, eye-opening and potentially worrying glimpse into an alternative societal path

Sedgwick, a former biophysicist, handles the ethics and possibility of new fertility technology admirably, cementing her reputation as one of the most important new writers around

Part thriller, part dystopian fiction, The Growing Season takes a fascinating "what if" question and really runs with it

An elegant and ingenious narrative, told with skill and sensitivity

An intriguing, eye-opening and potentially worrying glimpse into an alternative societal path.

The Growing Season is an outstanding example of SF feminism

As our own reality draws closer to that of Sedgwick's speculations, the need for preemptive legislative, social and cultural change becomes ever-more pressing

**AS HEARD ON BBC RADIO 4 WOMAN'S HOUR** 
 
What if anyone could have a baby? A boldly original and unforgettable novel from a rising star. 
 
Now we have equality. Now we've outgrown our biology. With FullLife's baby pouch, women are liberated and men can share the joy of childbearing. Holly's whole family knows the benefits, but Eva doesn't believe society has changed for the better and Piotr has uncovered a secret behind FullLife's glossy facade. What separates them may just bring them together, as they search for the truth about FullLife and each face a truth of their own. 
 
'A compelling what-if about the female body, technology and power' Guardian

Helen Sedgwick

Praise for The Growing Season

So enjoyed The Growing Season. . . Galloped my way to the conclusion, despite wishing it would never end. Smart & provocative.

The Growing Season poses a compelling what-if about the female body, technology and power

You know when you read the back of a book and your neck hairs go all tingly? This is one of them. . . an inventive tale that'll leave you contemplating what the future holds.

So enjoyed The Growing Season. . . Galloped my way to the conclusion, despite wishing it would never end. Smart & provocative.

The Growing Season poses a compelling what-if about the female body, technology and power

You know when you read the back of a book and your neck hairs go all tingly? This is one of them. . . an inventive tale that'll leave you contemplating what the future holds.

So enjoyed The Growing Season. . . Galloped my way to the conclusion, despite wishing it would never end. Smart & provocative.

The Growing Season poses a compelling what-if about the female body, technology and power

You know when you read the back of a book and your neck hairs go all tingly? This is one of them. . . an inventive tale that'll leave you contemplating what the future holds.

Books by Helen Sedgwick

Articles featuring Helen Sedgwick

What to read after The Handmaid’s Tale

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