Arlo Knott in under two minutes
If you’d like to know what The Undoing of Arlo Knott is about and why I wrote it, you can find out by listening to the audio clip above.
As first played by Caroline Martin on BBC Radio Somerset at 8:20am Sunday 6th July 2025. Available on BBC Sounds until early August.
Find out more about The Undoing of Arlo Knott, or read the transcript below.
My name is Heather Child and I’m going to tell you about my second novel published by Orbit, The Undoing of Arlo Knott.
I don’t know about you, but I spend a lot of time on a computer and it is such a relief when I make a mistake to hit the ‘undo’ button. I also make a lot of mistakes in life and I thought: how amazing would it be to have an undo button for those mistakes?
The Undoing of of Arlo Knott is about a man who develops the mysterious ability to reverse his last action. It makes him better at life, able to charm any woman and impress any friend. If he makes a mistake, he can just undo it. He can experience anything without worrying about the consequences. His is a life without regret. By his very nature, he can’t lose.
But second chances aren’t all they’re cracked up to be. As wonderful as his new life is, a mistake in Arlo’s traumatic childhood still haunts him, and the temptation to undo, undo, and keep undoing could be too much to resist.
In writing this book, I was exploring my interest in the nature of regret and hindsight. It’s quite a preoccupation for many people, and you can easily find a list of the top 10 deathbed regrets, for instance. I was interested in whether there is any value to regret to making mistakes. If you make no mistakes in life, does it turn you into a better person?
The Undoing of Arlo Knott is slightly speculative contemporary fiction, and if you like authors such as Matt Hague and Naomi Alderman, it might be for you. Is available at all good book shops and online.
