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The Inclination
Set in West Berlin in the early 1970s, The Inclination follows a small group of artists preparing a play in a borrowed flat. Arnold directs. Michael observes. Nancy manages what cannot be named. Olivia performs. The work is provisional, careful, and tightly contained.
As attention enters the room, nothing is explicitly forbidden. Instead, behaviour subtly shifts. Language tightens. Decisions narrow. What begins as a fragile experiment starts to account for itself. Efficiency replaces curiosity. Control disguises itself as care. The conditions that once made continuation possible begin to erode without force or confrontation.
Told through quiet observation rather than drama, the novel traces a movement from rehearsal to exposure, from collapse to dispersal, and finally to departure. It is a study of pressure rather than conflict, examining how creative work thins not under censorship, but under scrutiny, and how endings arrive without spectacle.
Spare, precise, and European in sensibility, The Inclination is a novel of rooms, gestures, silence, and proportion, about what happens when permission itself becomes the pressure.
As attention enters the room, nothing is explicitly forbidden. Instead, behaviour subtly shifts. Language tightens. Decisions narrow. What begins as a fragile experiment starts to account for itself. Efficiency replaces curiosity. Control disguises itself as care. The conditions that once made continuation possible begin to erode without force or confrontation.
Told through quiet observation rather than drama, the novel traces a movement from rehearsal to exposure, from collapse to dispersal, and finally to departure. It is a study of pressure rather than conflict, examining how creative work thins not under censorship, but under scrutiny, and how endings arrive without spectacle.
Spare, precise, and European in sensibility, The Inclination is a novel of rooms, gestures, silence, and proportion, about what happens when permission itself becomes the pressure.
305 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 18, 2026
About the author
Tom McPherson
6 books1 followerTom McPherson is a British writer and artist. His novels explore structure, atmosphere, and the subtle pressures that shape behaviour within ordered spaces.
He is the founder of Circle Line Art School and the imprint Circle Line Press, where he publishes both fiction and books on creativity and observation.
His fiction includes The Inclination, The Alignment, and The Gestural Line.
He writes about art, attention, and the creative process.
Website: www.circlelinepress.com
Newsletter: www.circlelineartschool.com/newslette...
He is the founder of Circle Line Art School and the imprint Circle Line Press, where he publishes both fiction and books on creativity and observation.
His fiction includes The Inclination, The Alignment, and The Gestural Line.
He writes about art, attention, and the creative process.
Website: www.circlelinepress.com
Newsletter: www.circlelineartschool.com/newslette...
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 22, 2026
The Inclination is a quiet and meticulously crafted novel that explores the fragile dynamics of creative collaboration under subtle pressure. Tom McPherson tells the story with restraint, allowing meaning to emerge through observation rather than overt conflict.
What makes the book particularly striking is its attention to detail. Small shifts in behavior, language, and atmosphere gradually reshape the creative environment, creating a sense of tension that builds without dramatic confrontation. It’s a slow, deliberate unraveling that feels both controlled and deeply intentional.
The focus on process on rehearsal, observation, and the gradual narrowing of possibilities gives the novel an intellectual depth that invites reflection. It’s less about what happens and more about how and why things change.
A thoughtful and understated work for readers who appreciate literary fiction that prioritizes nuance, atmosphere, and quiet psychological insight.
What makes the book particularly striking is its attention to detail. Small shifts in behavior, language, and atmosphere gradually reshape the creative environment, creating a sense of tension that builds without dramatic confrontation. It’s a slow, deliberate unraveling that feels both controlled and deeply intentional.
The focus on process on rehearsal, observation, and the gradual narrowing of possibilities gives the novel an intellectual depth that invites reflection. It’s less about what happens and more about how and why things change.
A thoughtful and understated work for readers who appreciate literary fiction that prioritizes nuance, atmosphere, and quiet psychological insight.
March 29, 2026
Permission without neutrality
Tom McPherson’s The Inclination is a novel organised around what its characters cannot say to each other and will not say to themselves. Set in a Kreuzberg flat, autumn 1972, it follows a group assembling a theatre production that will never reach a proper stage, and a narrator who arrives in Berlin seeking proximity to other people’s intensity, finds instead a role as witness and recorder, and for most of the book mistakes that role for an ethical position. Each scene is structured around what cannot be said, and every character’s protective method builds from that centre. The reader carries what neither the characters nor the sentences will deliver directly.
Full review: https://www.notesonbooks.net/the-incl...
Advance copy provided by NetGalley and Circle Line Press
Tom McPherson’s The Inclination is a novel organised around what its characters cannot say to each other and will not say to themselves. Set in a Kreuzberg flat, autumn 1972, it follows a group assembling a theatre production that will never reach a proper stage, and a narrator who arrives in Berlin seeking proximity to other people’s intensity, finds instead a role as witness and recorder, and for most of the book mistakes that role for an ethical position. Each scene is structured around what cannot be said, and every character’s protective method builds from that centre. The reader carries what neither the characters nor the sentences will deliver directly.
Full review: https://www.notesonbooks.net/the-incl...
Advance copy provided by NetGalley and Circle Line Press
April 26, 2026
In The Inclination, we follow a group of actors in West Berlin as they prepare a play. The prose in this book is exquisite, with a POV that feels omniscient despite technically being first person. The characters move through the book as if being directed, and the play itself grows and expands through the pages, taking on a life of its own, becoming its own character of sorts. The effect this has on the voice throughout is noteworthy, I've never read a book that sounds like this. That said, this is a quiet book, where tension is apparent on every page with few dramatic swells. Because of the distance inherent to the unique voice, motivations and thus characters are always at a significant distance. If these caveats are not discouraging, then The Inclination is very much a worthwhile read, just be aware that it does make demands of the reader.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews