The Wave Theory of Angels

The Wave Theory of Angels is Alison MacLeod's compelling mixture of thriller and philosophical exploration.

Two widowed fathers named Giles. The first, woodcarver Giles of Beauvais in thirteenth-century France, whose unearthly skill leads the medieval Church to suspect him of heresy. The second, maverick twenty-first-century physicist Giles Carver, who risks his reputation and livelihood for a heretical theory.

Both Gileses have daughters named Christina who each fall into a strange coma from which they will not wake. And in their dreams both girls struggle to return to the world that they left behind - a reality which seems to be turning away from them. Are the memories they cling to real? Is the lover they both dream of a protector - or a more sinister presence? And are the men who claim to be their fathers actually someone else entirely

'Part thriller, part philosophical treatise. Quite wonderful' Time Out

'Weaves science with mystery, justified faith with prejudice . . . an unfolding thriller in which the big question is whether one can die of an excess of emotion' Independent on Sunday

'A daring investigation of medieval philosophy, modern-day physics, and the relation of both to faith and desire . . . a novel with a passion for ideas. MacLeod has an engaged delight in the stuff of life' The Times Literary Supplement

'Utterly delightful, beautifully written' Alberto Manguel

Alison MacLeod was raised in Canada and has lived in England since 1987. She is the author of three novels, The Changeling, The Wave Theory of Angels and Unexploded, and of a collection of stories, Fifteen Modern Tales of Attraction. Unexploded was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2013. Alison MacLeod is Professor of Contemporary Fiction at Chichester University and lives in Brighton.