Shortlisted for the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction 2015.
London 1922. Frances and her mother lost all their male relatives in the war and are left struggling with a big house in Camberwell. They take in lodgers, a young married couple. The author is well known for her tales of gay relationships so it is no surprise when Frances and the young lodger’s wife, Lily, have an affair. But it is a surprise to them. Their passion escalates resulting in a tragedy. When an innocent boy is charged with murder the girls have hard decisions to face. This is a fascinating tale of class, sex and the consequences of a passionate affair. It is tense with an unexpected ending, certainly a page-turner with the backdrop of a dreary London so vividly described; Sarah Waters at her best.
'A page-turning melodrama and a fascinating portrait of London on the verge of great change' Guardian
It is 1922, and in a hushed south London villa life is about to be transformed, as genteel widow Mrs Wray and her discontented daughter Frances are obliged to take in lodgers. Lilian and Leonard Barber, a modern young couple of the 'clerk class', bring with them gramophone music, colour, fun - and dangerous desires. The most ordinary of lives, it seems, can explode into passion and drama... A love story that is also a crime story, this is vintage Sarah Waters.
'Another wild ride of a novel... magnetic storytelling' Tracy Chevalier, Observer
'You will be hooked within a page' Charlotte Mendelson, Financial Times
'Sumptuous... the writing is impeccable. A joy in every respect' New Statesman
'An unsurpassed fictional recorder of vanished eras and hidden lives' Sunday Times
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