Cover art: THE GRADUAL by Christopher Priest

Gollancz have released the cover art for Christopher Priest's new novel, The Gradual.

The book will be publiushed on 15 September 2016. A description follows:

In this latest novel from one of the UK’s greatest writers we return to the Dream Archipelago, a string of islands that no one can map or explain. Alesandro Sussken is a composer, and we see his life as he grows up in a fascist state constantly at war with another equally faceless opponent. His brother is sent off to fight; his family is destroyed by grief. Occasionally Alesandro catches glimpses of islands in the far distance from the shore, and they feed into his music – music for which he is feted. But all knowledge of the other islands is forbidden by the junta, until he is unexpectedly sent on a cultural tour. And what he discovers on his journey will change his perceptions of his country, his music and the ways of the islands themselves.

Christopher Priest announces a new novel

Christopher Priest has taken to his blog to confirm the completion of a new novel, The Gradual.
 

According to Priest, this novel breaks with the tradition of his last few books by having a reliable narrator and a linear storyline told in sequence. Priest's last few novels - The Separation, The Islanders and The Adjacent - have all featured non-linear storytelling, unreliable (or mad) narrators and shifting perspectives and realities.

This is interesting news, as Priest had previously said his next novel would be called The Mariners. Whether this is the same book with a new title, or a different work that cropped up, is unclear. Hopefully, we will see The Gradual on shelves in 2016.