'BARNES'S MASTERPIECE' - OBSERVER
In May 1937 a man in his early thirties waits by the lift of a Leningrad apartment block. He waits all through the night, expecting to be taken away to the Big House. Any celebrity he has known in the previous decade is no use to him now. And few who are taken to the Big House ever return.
'Stunning' Sunday Times
'A profound meditation on power and the relationship of art and power? It is a masterpiece of sympathetic understanding? I don't think Barnes has written a finer, more truthful or more profound book' Scotsman
'A tour de force by a master novelist at the top of his game' Daily Express
"We're going to be fine." He looks around, but there's nothing out here: nothing but the bottomless black universe on their left, the Earth suspended in glorious technicolour to their right. Carys and Max have ninety minutes of air left. None of this was supposed to happen. Adrift in space with nothing to hold on to but each other, Carys and Max can't help but look back at the world they left behind. A world whose rules they couldn't submit to, a place where they never really belonged; a home they're determined to get back to because they've come too far to lose each other now. Hold Back the Stars is a love story like no other. "Prepare to shed tears" Heat "Original, surprising and romantic" Woman' Home "Breaks your heart, then kicks it a few more times for good measure in the most beautiful way possible" The Pool "A high-stakes, high-concept love story from a bold new talent ... All of the obvious "out of this world" comments apply." -- Matt Haig, author of The Humans "Think Gravity meets The Versions of Us" Red
