First published 2010
Matthew Halland walks through London's shifting landscape, where construction cranes tower over Georgian terraces and ancient foundations. As an architect working on ambitious Docklands developments, he sees the city as a palimpsest where all eras exist at once. The streets trigger memories of his childhood, his daughter Jane's early years, and the marriage that fell apart. London speaks to him in layers: prehistoric settlements beneath Roman walls, elegant eighteenth-century squares, bomb craters from the Blitz still visible in his mind's eye. While Matthew drafts plans for gleaming new towers that will reshape the city's future, he finds himself reconstructing his own life. The blueprints he creates for London's transformation become a mirror for his personal renewal, as past and present converge in both his professional vision and private reckonings.
Genres: literary-fiction, contemporary, 21st-century, architecture
Vibes: atmospheric, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: past-present-converge, personal-transformation
Setting: London, Docklands
Period: 20th-century, 21st-century
220 pages · Paperback · Penguin Books