The book
A FEBRUARY 2023 INDIE NEXT PICK
LONGLISTED FOR THE 2022 DESMOND ELLIOTT PRIZE
A short, lyrical debut novel about love, loss, work, time, and the unquenchable desire for connection with others—for fans of Jenny Offill, Mieko Kawakami, David Szalay and Sheila Heti
The second time you came, we went from bar to bar to bar. It made the city feel smaller. Like a map we were folding to the size of a stamp. We were good at that. We could have fit an entire universe inside a matchbox.
Exquisitely crafted, richly imagined, and as funny as it is moving, Hourglass is an unusual and uniquely told love story. Turning time upside down, it combs the wreckage of personal heartbreak for something universal and asks what it means to lose what you love.
“This book is such a sneaky head f*ck—an epic poem in an ancient style about the brutalities of modern love, a masculine interrogation of feminine heartbreak, a really beautiful way to spend an evening”—Lena Dunham
The author
Keiran Goddard
Keiran Goddard is the author of one poetry pamphlet (Strings) and two full-length poetry collections, For the Chorus and Votive, the first of which was shortlisted for the Melita Hume Prize and runner-up for the William Blake Prize. He speaks on issues related to social change and currently develops research on workers’ rights, the future of work, automation, and trade unionism. Hourglass is his debut novel and his first US publication.