Ten Bare Minutes

About this book

In the walled river city of Corrowmere, nobody touches anybody. Forty-one years after the grey killed one person in three, the law means gloves from the age of two, high collars and the gallows for contact. Eighteen-year-old Teo Brannagh, a lock keeper's ward whose mother was hanged for touching, has spent her life being blameless. Then the Ministry's blood test names her the new Hand, the one person immune, who touches the dying and blesses the newborn bare-palmed. Her ceremonial gloves must be cut to her bare hand by Dov Ilunga, a glovemaker's apprentice who runs an illegal room where young people pay a week's rations for ten minutes of holding hands. And the retiring Hand has stolen a ledger that says the miracle is a lie. How much would you risk for ten bare minutes?