The Book of Guilt

The new novel by bestselling author Catherine Chidgy, “Ptenchik,” transports readers to an alternative world in which World War II ended in 1943 after an assassination attempt on Hitler. Under the terms of a peace agreement, the Allies gained access to medical developments made by Nazi researchers—and postwar Europe made a rapid scientific leap, unthinkable in the usual course of history.

England, the late 1970s. On the outskirts of New Forest, in an old mansion, the “Captain Scott” home operates. Here live triplets—Vincent, William, and Lawrence—the last residents of “Sycomore Project.” As children, the boys contracted a mysterious Infection, and now they are forced to exist in complete isolation. Behind stone walls, their life is scheduled minute by minute: exercises, lessons, walks under the supervision of three “mother” caretakers. Any misdeed is entered into the “Book of Guilt,” dreams go into the “Book of Dreams,” and knowledge about the outside world is recorded in the “Book of Knowledge.”

Most of all, the boys dream of getting better and one day leaving for Margate. Their strict, closed way of life seems almost safe—nearly home-like—until the comforting picture begins to crumble: the authorities decide to shut down the project and liquidate the institution. In the whirlwind of sudden changes, everything the triplets believed in collapses. Was there ever anything truly real in their past? Who are they—rare marvels of nature or merely material for an experiment?

Catherine Chidgy writes a piercing dystopia about how power constructs a child’s reality, instilling both a sense of chosen-ness and fragility at the same time. This is a story of belonging in a world where the value of a life is measured unevenly. And more terrifying than any monster here is the gentleness with which irreparable harm is sometimes inflicted.

A mesmerizing novel about the boundaries of care, control, and guilt—brilliantly brought to life by Leon Avtaev, Marina Lisovets, and Olga Pletneva.

Press on the book:
“An epically thought-out, expertly constructed, conceptually gripping novel filled with perfectly calibrated revelations,”—The New York Times
“Brilliantly recreated dystopian England,”—The Observer
“An eloquent prose style, vivid images of characters, and complex concepts—an emotional and intellectual masterpiece,”—Kirkus Reviews