Officer Joseph Tinbane isn't surprised when he hears a voice speaking to him from beneath the ground - he knows it's just one of the 'old-born' waiting to be dug up. For time is going backwards: old men emerge from their graves, grow to middle age, youth, adolescence and childhood to be finally unborn in their mother' wombs.

The most powerful - and feared - organisation in the world is the Library, in charge of expunging the records of events which have no longer happened. But when a powerful black leader is unborn, it is the Library's sole aim to eliminate him before the renewal of racial violence tears the country apart.

But it isn't that simple. Time which heals can also destroy. And one man is struggling in a world gone awry.

Over a writing career that spanned three decades, PHILIP K. DICK (1928-1982) published 36 science fiction novels and 121 short stories in which he explored the essence of what makes man human and the dangers of centralised power. Toward the end of his life, his work turned to deeply personal, metaphysical questions concerning the nature of God. Eleven novels and short stories have been adapted to film, notably Blade Runner (based on Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?), Total Recall, Minority Report, and A Scanner Darkly, as well as television's The Man in the High Castle. The recipient of critical acclaim and numerous awards throughout his career, including the Hugo and John W. Campbell awards, Dick was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2005, and between 2007 and 2009, the Library of America published a selection of his novels in three volumes. His work has been translated into more than twenty-five languages.