This, My Second Life by Charnley, Patrick

Author: Charnley, Patrick

Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945)

Published on 8 January 2026 by Cornerstone (Hutchinson Heinemann) in the United Kingdom.

Hardback | 256 pages
145 x 224 x 29 | 360g

Beautifully written, spare and elegiac, a literary debut novel set in Cornwall in which a young man comes to terms with a life-changing injury.

‘A remarkable debut novel Patrick Gale’A moving must-read Jennie GodfreyThrilling and tender, I enjoyed every word’ Julie Myerson——-After a near-death experience and life-changing injury, twenty-year-old Jago Trevarno goes to stay with his uncle on his small coastal farm a few miles from St Ives in Cornwall.

Their existence is a simple one, their lives measured by the span of the days, the rhythms of the seasons and the animals they care for.

But lurking in the shadows is local villain, Bill Sligo, who has designs on Jacob’s farm and in particular on a field near the cliffs housing a derelict mineshaft.

Wanting to repay his uncles kindness, Jago determines to find out what Bill Sligo is up to.

Jago is still vulnerable though, and in pursuing Sligo he delves into a murky world that he is ill-equipped to deal with. How far will Bill Sligo go to get what he wants? Jago doesnt know it yet, but once again he is in grave danger.

Beautifully written, spare and elegiac, filled with shafts of light and darkness as well as the beauty and harshness of the Cornish landscape, Jago’s journey is one of hope, renewal and resilience as he comes to terms with this, his second life.

——-Further praise for This, My Second Life:’The prose is spare and beautiful, the narrative simple but sound it is as finely wrought as poetry’ The Guardian’Deceptively simple yet completely compulsive’ Gill Hornby’An unexpectedly life affirming story woven into the fabric of a thriller’ Esther Freud’An intense and unexpected debut. A beautiful piece of writing’ Amanda Craig’A hypnotic read, gentle, generous and compelling Mail on Sunday’Beautifully written, poignant, moving and emotional’ 5-star reader review’So profound and thought-provoking’ 5-star reader review’An exceptional story’ 5-star reader review