An Ocean of Minutes: A Novel (Hardcover)

An Ocean of Minutes: A Novel By Thea Lim Cover Image
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AN INDIE NEXT PICK!
A “Best Book of 2018” —Real Simple

“Lim’s steady prose and deft character development ensured that I was hooked on Polly’s story from beginning to end. [F]ull of fascinating social commentary on class differences, racism and sexism...it’s easy to fall into this novel and become emotionally involved in Polly’s journey and her search to find the people she loves.” —Los Angeles Times

In the vein of The Time Traveler’s Wife and Station Eleven, a sweeping literary love story about two people who are at once mere weeks and many years apart.


America is in the grip of a deadly flu pandemic. When Frank catches the virus, his girlfriend Polly will do whatever it takes to save him, even if it means risking everything. She agrees to a radical plan—time travel has been invented in the future to thwart the virus. If she signs up for a one-way-trip into the future to work as a bonded laborer, the company will pay for the life-saving treatment Frank needs. Polly promises to meet Frank again in Galveston, Texas, where she will arrive in twelve years.

But when Polly is re-routed an extra five years into the future, Frank is nowhere to be found. Alone in a changed and divided America, with no status and no money, Polly must navigate a new life and find a way to locate Frank, to discover if he is alive, and if their love has endured.

An Ocean of Minutes is a gorgeous and heartbreaking story about the endurance and complexity of human relationships and the cost of holding onto the past—and the price of letting it go.

About the Author


Thea Lim’s writing has been published by Granta, The Paris ReviewThe GuardianSalonThe Globe and MailThe Southampton Review and others. She holds an MFA from the University of Houston and previously served as nonfiction editor at Gulf Coast. She grew up in Singapore and lives in Toronto, where she is a professor of creative writing.

Praise For…


A strikingly imaginative time-travel story unlike anything I’ve ever read, rich with pinpoint emotional insight and fierce, vivid observations about a future that’s already our past.
— Elan Mastai, author of the bestselling ALL OUR WRONG TODAYS

An Ocean of Minutes is a time machine into the future of this moment. Gripping and graceful, it's dystopian love story as told by a visionary. Thea Lim's novel reads like the birth of a legend.
— Mat Johnson, award-winning author of PYM and LOVING DAY

Amidst the breathtaking world Thea Lim has created in An Ocean of Minutes is a profound meditation on the inhumanity of class and the limits of love. It takes immense talent to render cruelty both accurately and with honest beauty—Lim has pulled it off. This is a story about the malleability of time, but at its core lives something timeless.
— Omar El Akkad, author of AMERICAN WAR

An Ocean of Minutes is a buoyant, compelling tale ranging from the everyday beauty of falling in love to a frightening vision of a dystopian present day. Ms. Lim's imagination is boundless and dynamic.
— Jennie Melamed, author of GATHER THE DAUGHTERS

[T]he novel oscillates between the present and future—a jarring juxtaposition that's equally touching and heartbreaking… Lim's writing shines brightest when she's ruminating on time, memory, and love... A beautiful debut exploring how time, love, and sacrifice are never what they seem to be.
— Kirkus

Lim’s enthralling novel succeeds on every level: as a love story, an imaginative thriller, and a dystopian narrative.
— Publishers Weekly, starred review

One of "10 Prescient new feminist dystopias to read after THE HANDMAID'S TALE." 
— Entertainment Weekly

An Ocean of Minutes is an astute novel. Using familiar speculative fiction tropes, Lim takes a love story and turns it around, ending up with a tale of self-possession and survival. 
— Bookreporter

Lim’s steady prose and deft character development ensured that I was hooked on Polly’s story from beginning to end. [F]ull of fascinating social commentary on class differences, racism and sexism….it’s easy to fall into this novel and become emotionally involved in Polly’s journey and her search to find the people she loves.
— Los Angeles Times

“Thea Lim’s An Ocean of Minutes is that rare thing—a speculative novel that is as heartfelt as it is philosophical.”

 
— Esi Edugyan, Man Booker Prize Finalist and author of Washington Black


Product Details
ISBN: 9781501192555
ISBN-10: 1501192558
Publisher: Gallery Books
Publication Date: July 10th, 2018
Pages: 320
Language: English