This was my favourite read of 2016 - read with one hand on my Kindle and one on the internet, researching comets. Helen Sedgwick combines fiction and science to create a poetic book full of heart.

A must read book it is hard to believe it is a debut novel

The Comet Seekers is a charming and enchanting novel, perfect for a winter’s evening. Described as a cross between The Time Traveller’s Wife and One Day, it is a novel that spans over 100 years, and travels from France, Ireland and Antarctica.

This a somewhat striking novel about love, loss, hope and heartbreak, filled with wondrous evocative landscapes. There is also the element of magical realism that gives an added texture to the novel. Moreover, there are some light supernatural elements that work in conjunction with this but was however a little too much for me.

The comets are the connecting elements for these various vignette like chapters that cover a wide breadth of time and location. While this conceit is interesting, the characters themselves were drawn a little thinly at times and therefore fell a little flat, causing the book to lag. The book overall could have worked better as a novella and some reworking of the characters.

A lovely tale, if a little underwhelming.