Cliff was moving out. He said, Would you like a tortoise. I would not say no to a tortoise, I said. I was alone in Portland and the trees were giant. I picked her up and she blinked at me with her upside-down eyelids. I felt instantly calm. Her eyes were soft brown. Her skin felt like an old elbow. I will build you a castle, I whispered. With a pool. Audrey Flowers, our intellectually-challenged narrator, lives quietly with her tortoise Winnifred. When her father is killed in a bizarre accident involving a Christmas tree, Audrey returns to her old home and her beloved, grief-stricken uncle, to grapple with the unsolvable puzzle of her father's death. Before long, Audrey is caught up in a life-changing mystery. Her investigations will take her on an extraordinary journey as she seeks to unravel the secrets at the heart of her family. Co-narrated by a 300-year-old tortoise and starring a mouse who, by all appearances, is himself immortal, Come, Thou Tortoise unfolds in a world that is almost, but not quite, our own. Tortoises read Shakespeare. Pilots kiss their co-pilots. And you might just live forever if you can avoid all the fast-moving Christmas trees, crashing airplanes, cliffs when you are lonely and staircases when you are tired. Touching, funny and thoroughly delightful, this is a book that will warm the cockles of your heart. AUTHOR Jessica Grant is the author of a collection of short stories, Making Light of Tragedy. Come, Thou Tortoise is her first novel. She lives in Newfoundland. SELLING POINTS ? A breathtakingly warm-hearted and funny debut from a brilliant new writer ? A book that will delight fans of Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
