Please note that we will only grant requests to Canadian residents.

In 1972, two seconds were added to time. It was in order to balance clock time with the movement of the earth. Byron Hemming knows this because James Lowe has told him, and James is the cleverest boy at school. But how can time change? The steady movement of hands around a clock is as certain as their golden futures.

Then Byron's mother, late for the school run, makes a devastating mistake. Byron's perfect world is shattered. Were those two extra seconds to blame? Can what follows ever be set right?

RACHEL JOYCE is the author of the international bestseller The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, which was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Book Prize and longlisted for the 2012 Man Booker Prize. She lives in Gloucestershire with her husband and four children. Visit Rachel at www.rachel-joyce.co.uk.