Shortlisted in the Hot Press reader's poll for best book of the year, John Connolly's reads his latest novel The Land of Lost Things (2023) as part of our 'My Reading of It' series.

The 2023 book harks back to Connolly's first fantasy novel The Book of Lost Things (2006).'

This time around, an eight-year-old girl, Phoebe, lies in a coma while her mother, Ceres, reads aloud to her some of her favourite fairy stories, in the hope they might resuscitate her.

Ceres find herself compelled to enter an old house on the hospital grounds, which proves something of a portal back to her own childhood, where she encounters witches, giants, and some fearsome old enemies. It’s a gripping tale, which is per Connolly’s usual masterful storytelling flair.

The author of the best selling Detective Charlier Parker thriller series, turns his hand back to fantasy in what Hot Press readers voted as one of the best books of the year.

Speaking on the difference between the 2006 book and the 2023 one, Connolly said: "It’s a book about parenthood, more so than the first one. And if I were to do another one, I suspect it would be about old age. There’s probably only one more in me, if I were to go back to it".

Watch John Connolly's 'My Reading Of It' below: