George Falls Through Time
A Novel
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3.2 • 5 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
GEORGE FALLS THROUGH TIME IS. . .
"Incredibly entertaining and intelligent." —GARRARD CONLEY
"Big-hearted and inspired." —STEVEN ROWLEY
"Funny, surprising, profound." —GRANT GINDER
"Unputdownable." —LUNA MCNAMARA
Less meets the year 1300 in this exhilarating and thoughtfully genre-defying literary novel about a man transported through time in a moment of extreme stress, whose modern anxieties are replaced by medieval brutalities
Newly laid off George’s internet bill is in his ex-boyfriend’s name. He’s got a spider-infested apartment, and two of the six dogs he’s walking in London have just escaped. It’s pure undiluted stress that sends him into a spiral, all the way to the year 1300.
When he comes to, George recognizes the same rolling hills of Greenwich Park. But the luxuries and phone service of modernity are nowhere. In their place are locals with a bizarre, slanted speech in awe of his foreign clothes, who swiftly toss him in a dungeon. Despite the barbarity of a medieval world, a servant named Simon helps George acclimate to a simpler, easier existence—until a summons from the King threatens to send his life up in flames.
George Falls Through Time is as much an inward journey as an outward one: an immersive exploration of identity and dislocation that pits present-day sensibilities against a raw and alien backdrop, a strangely perfect canvas for the absurd anxieties of our modern lives. It's a profound meditation on the nature of desire perfect for fans of Madeline Miller and The Ministry of Time.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
This fractured, reflective take on the legend of St. George imagines what it’s like to collide with your past, present, and future all at once. In 2026 London, George is in a rut. His boyfriend has left him, he can’t keep a desk job or straighten out his internet billing, and he can’t even control the dogs he’s supposed to be walking. A misadventure with an Afghan hound somehow lands him in the 14th-century era of King Edward I, a brutal, dirty time which nevertheless holds its own beauty—especially since it includes a young servant named Simon. It’s also home to a dragon with an unexpected connection to George’s sudden temporal dislocation. Author Ryan Collett writes with humor and sensitivity, using time travel to explore how George sees himself and what he truly wants. George Falls Through Time is an inventive, quietly affecting story about what it really means to start over and why changing your surroundings isn’t always enough.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The appealing sophomore effort from Collett (The Disassembly of Doreen Durand) follows a 20-something dog walker who time-travels from present-day England to the year 1300. George, broke and reeling from a breakup, becomes overwhelmed by panic when he loses two of his clients' dogs during a walk in a Greenwich park. He falls down and feels "the world becoming liquid, slipping out from under me," then comes to in 14th-century England, where he is interrogated by armored guards and swiftly imprisoned in a dungeon. One of his tormentors, Simon, helps him escape, and they become lovers. George has a hard time adjusting to his new world, but he's happy with Simon and doesn't want to go back to his "days of toil and ruin." Then he's summoned to meet King Edward I, who tasks him with helping to capture a dragon, which, when it breathes fire, also spews plastic and other refuse from the future. Collett blends entertaining fantasy and romance elements with meditations on the power of love, which George views as the only force strong enough to "pull someone through time." This queer medieval adventure is great fun.
