"When Conrad Sands returns a wristwatch to an old flame after 20 years apart, a remarkable chain of events begins.
The watch passes through the hands of a gold-digger, a journalist, an enchantress, and a professor. It touches the lives of a rogue art collector, a domestic helper, and an environmental campaigner. It influences a reverend's apprentice, a kept wife, and a self-made man. All of them are strangers, yet all are intricately linked in ways that none of them see.
A deeply thought-provoking debut novel, Once Upon a Timepiece by Starr Wood is a gripping portrayal of humanity's relationship with time and the unseen threads of history that bind us together. Told through a series of twelve inter-connected short stories, it explores memory and regret, ambition and weakness, and the texture of time that lies behind all our lives."
Here's an extract from early in the first chapter, January: Seize the Day -
"Conrad pulled open the desk drawer and took out a second watch, cleaning it on his shirt. He had never worn this one, but he had held it countless times over the past 19 years, staring at its features. The watch was a 1946 Breitling Chronomat made from rose-coloured gold. Mariana had told hime it was designed during World War II for aviators. It had two extra dials on its face and a rotation bezel marked with various scales and measurements. In the right hands, the watch could be used to work out speeds, distances, percentages, fuel consumption and numerous other calculations.
Mariana had given him the watch over their last breakfast. It had belonged to her grandfather, who had left it to her in his will. Mariana had worn it every day that Conrad had known her. It was one of his defining memories of her - a slim 23-year-old woman wearing an antique men's gold watch that dwarfed her wrist. The leather strap showed clearly where she had punched an extra hole to make the fit tight enough.
Conrad has protested at the gift, but Mariana had waved away his concerns and insisted he keep it to remind him of her. At the time it had felt like a promise to keep in close contact, that their parting was just a temporary break. He had been 21, and thought they'd be apart for a few months, perhaps a year at most. He certainly hadn't expected to be 40 years old when they reconnected.
He wound up the Breitling and set the time so that it now ticked in unison with his first watch. It was 5.30pm, and already dark outside. He was due to meet her in two hours."
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