On the eve of Granny Hazels burial in the back garden a stranger in his time machine
- a machine that bears an uncanny resemblance to a Morris Minor
- visits five year-old Edward with a strange request. & Edward agrees to be his friend. But Edward is not alone in the world. His twin sister Sophia is about to bring future tragedy upon herself through an all-too-literal misunderstanding of a promise shes made to their father. So while Sophia stays at home seemingly condemned to spend the rest of her days in The Manse
- a world untouched by modern trappings
- Edward is sent to boarding school. There he encounters the kind & the not-so-kind & meets the strangest child. His name is Alf & Alf is a boy whose very existence would seem to hint at universes of unlimited possibilities.. .and who might one day help Edward liberate Sophia. With its Gothic backdrop Half-Sick of Shadows" is a novel of many parts: at once a comical tragedy a dark & dazzlingly told tale of childhood wonder & dismay of familial dysfunction of poetry the imagination & theoretical physics."