1980s 20th-century britain british british-author british-fiction british-lit british-literature contemporary contemporary-fiction england english fairy-tales fairytales family fantasy female-author feminism feminist fiction gay-fiction gender glbt historical historical-fiction history lesbian lesbian-fiction lgbt literary-fiction literature london love magic-realism magical-realism novel novels postmodern postmodernism queer sexuality speculative-fiction uk winterson women

In a fantastic world that is and is not seventeenth-century England, a baby is found floating in the Thames. The child, Jordan, is rescued by Dog Woman and grows up to travel the world like Gulliver, though he finds that the worlds most curious oddities come from his own mind. Winterson leads the reader from discussions on the nature of time to Jordans fascination with journeys concealed within other journeys, all with a dizzying speed that shoots the reader from epiphany to shimmering epiphany.