Big Time

In this “virtuoso,” “jaw-dropping” and “stellar technological thriller” (Publishers Weekly, Starred Review), a mother engulfed by her own mid-life crisis stumbles upon a dark conspiracy to harvest and sell people’s time. 

What if time could be taken from us—the minutes, the hours, the years of our lives, extracted like organs taken for transplant? What would it mean for the world? And what would it do to the person from whom it’s taken? 

Grace Berney is a mid-level bureaucrat in the Food and Drug Administration, a woman who once brimmed with purpose but somehow turned into a middle-aged single mom with a dull government job and a melancholy sense that life has passed her by. Until the night a strange photo comes across her desk, of a young woman in a hospital bed who has been subjected to a mysterious procedure. Against orders and against common sense, Grace sets out to bring the girl to safety, and finds herself risking her job, her future, and her life on whether she can find the missing girl before an obsessive and violent mercenary who’s also looking. Big Time is a fast-paced thriller and a metaphysical mystery about the very nature of our lives.

• One of the New York Times Best Thrillers of the Year So Far
  "A weird and wonderful cautionary tale about futuristic technology run amok."
  Sarah Lyall, New York Times Book Review
• “Big Time is a wild and wonderful trip, a kaleidoscope of mind-bending science, metaphysics, and good old-fashioned thrills. And most engaging of all are the characters Ben Winters creates: a hugely appealing Everywoman sleuth, a young woman struggling with a harrowing dilemma, and one of the scariest antagonists in recent memory.” 
  Lou Berney, author of the New York Times-bestselling NOVEMBER ROAD
• “Ben Winters is a genre alchemist - the kind of writer who blends and weaves the preconceived ideas of story to create something wholly new and riveting, and Big Time is no exception. A brilliant thriller that also dances between the raindrops of reality and time itself, Winters continues to keep readers on their toes, in the best way possible. I’m so glad this book exists.”
  Alex Segura, bestselling author of SECRET IDENTITY
• "An exciting, thought-provoking, time-bending, and ultimately mind-blowing tale filled with the wonder, whimsy, and weirdness that make Ben H. Winters one of our most imaginative voices."
  Thomas Mullen, author of BLIND SPOTS
• “Big Time is a propulsive mix of big ideas, expert plotting, and deep character work—intertwined in the kind of way that only Ben Winters can do. This is a ‘clear your calendar first’ kind of book.”
  Rob Hart, author of THE PARADOX HOTEL and THE WAREHOUSE
• "Winters, author of the stunning Last Policeman trilogy and the mind-bending The Quiet Boy (2021), doles out another heaping serving of metaphysics. . . Winters asks us to open ourselves to the impossible by following real, relatable characters. Another strong, thought-provoking novel from a writer who gets better with every book."
  Booklist
• "Winters (The Quiet Boy) is an expert at gripping adventures that invite readers to ponder big existential questions. Here he explores the balance between scientific advancement and ethics, a timely theme. . . A fast-paced and thought-provoking speculative thriller with well-drawn and relatable characters."
  Portia Kapraun, Library Journal
• "Winters plays with readers' expectations like a virtuoso in this stellar technological thriller. . . jaw-dropping plot twists are always grounded in pitch-perfect depictions of ordinary people caught up in extraordinary events. Blake Crouch fans will be in heaven."
  Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW