Meet Elliott.

Elliott is hugely intelligent. He's an incredible observer. He has a beautiful and unusual imagination. To know him is to adore him.

But Elliott is also stuck. He lives in an orphanage in 1979. He spends his days in a wheelchair, in an empty corridor, or wherever the Catholic Sisters who run the ward have decided to park him.

So when Jim, blind and mute but also headstrong, arrives on the ward and begins to defy the Sisters' restrictive rules, Elliott finally sees a chance for escape. Together, they could achieve a magnificent freedom – if only for a few hours.

But how can Elliott, unable to move or speak clearly, communicate all this to Jim? How can he even get Jim to know he exists?

Patience is a remarkable story of love and friendship, courage and adventure. It is also about finding joy in the most unlikely of settings. Elliott and Jim are going to have fun.



Toby Litt grew up in Ampthill, Bedfordshire. He has worked as teacher, bookseller and subtitler.

A graduate of Malcolm Bradbury's Creative Writing MA at the University of East Anglia, he is a Granta Best of Young British Novelist and a regular on Radio 3's The Verb. A renowned short story writer, over the course of his career Toby has been longlisted, shortlisted, and the winner of the Sunday Times Short Story Prize, the Edge Hill Short Story Prize, the Frank O'Connor Short Story Award and the Manchester Fiction Prize.