Claire North

Harry August is living his life over and over again, always born to the same mother in the same time and place, but living in a world that’s altered each time because of the actions of the others who are also reliving their lives. The world Claire North (aka Cat Webb) built has a rich, interlocking structure: The repetitions are synchronous in that the entire life of the universe plays out before restarting from the beginning for everyone, but only a handful, such as Harry, remember the previous time around. Those who do remember have formed a society whose overriding purpose is to keep the status quo because once a change is made and a person is not born during a cycle of the universe, that person will never again be born. The society also arranges a system to send messages back through the generations by having young reborn children contact older society members who are near death. From time to time, changes in the universe cause new members to be born, and thus, Harry appears just in time to become embroiled in a vicious plot to change everything.

I was fortunate to meet Cat Webb at the 2015 Campbell Conference in Lawrence, Kansas, where she cheerfully talked to me and Rob Maslen about anything and everything during the week leading up to the announcement of Harry August as the winner of the 2015 Campbell Award for the best novel of the year. Yay, Cat (and yay for your friendliness and wry sense of humor)!