WINNER OF THE HAWTHORNDEN PRIZE & THE RUTH HADDEN MEMORIAL AWARDTim Pears' prize-winning critically acclaimed debut about a hot summer in a Devon village where time seems to stand still This overwhelmingly hot summer everything seems to be slowing down in the tiny Devon village where Alison lives as if the sun is pouring hot glue over it This idn't nothin'' says Alison's grandmother recalling a drought when the earth swallowed lambs & the summer after the war when people got electric shocks off each other But Alison knows her grandmother's memory is lying this is far worse She feels that time has stopped just as she wants to enter the real world of adulthood In fact in the cruel heat of summer time is creeping towards her & closing in around the valley