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Orbit is to include unique handwritten postcards offering advice to readers in the first 3,000 hardback editions of novel The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by the pseudonymous Claire North.
The book has also been chosen for Simon Mayo’s Book Club on Radio 2, and North’s true identity will be revealed during an appearance on Mayo’s radio show on April 22nd.
The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August follows the titular character, who always returns to where he began – a child with all the knowledge of a life he has lived before. As he nears the end of his 11th life, a little girl appears with a message telling him the world is ending, and it is up to him to save it.
As part of the marketing campaign for the book, Orbit has included postcards, each with a unique piece of advice, in all the first hardback editions of the novel. The messages were composed and written by staff at the publisher, although 15 of the postcards are “written” by Harry August himself.
Readers who find a message from Harry will win a treasure from one of the character’s 15 lives.
Orbit also asked readers for their advice to their past selves via the Little, Brown newsletter, with responses including practical suggestions such as “go for that BT apprenticeship” to blunt advice like “don’t marry Shannon”, and people will also be able to leave suggestions on the official Harry August website from Monday (March 17th).
Gemma Conley-Smith, press officer at Orbit, said: “We had such a lot of moving, funny and clever, as well as incredibly sad, responses to the question ‘If you could go back and give yourself one piece of advice from a life already lived, what would it be?’
“People have been really engaging with the idea and we want to build on this by passing the messages, and their wisdom, on. I hope that when people find a postcard in their copy of Harry August it feels like the universe has delivered our message to the right person. We hope this campaign adds an extra dimension to the book, as well as giving readers a further taste of Harry’s world receiving, as he does, a message from themselves at a different time in their life.”
The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August is released on April 8th.