Clockwise to Titan

Having escaped from the Institute and its brutal watchdogs, Mo, Harete and The Moth must reach the border of the Other country, where Moth’s exiled father might be able to help them. Between them and the hope of freedom are dogs, mantraps, and mile upon mile of mud, snow, and ice. Yet there are many things they don’t know: who is it that seems to be helping them, and why is it that they must escape at all?

Clockwise to Titan skilfully weaves a number of stories together: that of the months in the Institute leading up to the breakout, that of the inmates’ escape, and the stories that the three leads tell each other as they slog through frozen no man’s land between the Institute and the border. Mo is a cunning, self-deceiving, but ultimately likeable narrator whose motives are believably opaque, and the way in which he traces the shifting loyalties between the three escapees is convincing. Bleak but ultimately uplifting, Clockwise to Titan is a strong, tightly-plotted debut.