The Clockwork Bones

Forced to play chess for survival, a runaway farm boy must escape the clutches of an evil circus manager to uncover the truth of his mother's death. The Clockwork Bones is an Australian gothic tale about the interconnectedness of past and present. Clues to the story's many twists are hidden in the images, making this book a unique page-turner.

In 1914, an Australian family spirals into ruin. Avery, a young farm boy, is struggling to accept his mother's death after an accident involving a circus pig. Hope arrives in the form of a new governess who encourages Avery to play chess and works to bring the family together. However, the father's grief and violence shatters this hope and Avery and Sarah must flee their burning house. They arrive at a travelling circus where Avery plays chess against a machine called The Clockwork Bones. Although he loses the game, the circus manager offers Avery a job to secretly operate the chess machine. The Clockwork Bones becomes a prison for Avery but before he can escape, the truth about Sarah and the identity of the mysterious governess must unfold.

In his first novel, Hamlyn-Harris conjures a world of travelling curiosities, real mermaids, learned animals and a chess playing automaton called the Clockwork Bones, all set against a backdrop of rural Australia in 1914 and a family torn apart by grief. The Clockwork Bones explores the violence lurking in classic fairy tales and includes a retelling of Polyphemus and Ulysses from the perspective of the cyclops.