With her usual masterly powers for evoking atmosphere, Sarah Waters treats us to this utterly unnerving ghost story. When Dr Faraday is called to the once-glorious, now decaying, Hundreds Hall to treat a young maid sick with fear, he becomes inextricably involved with the Ayres family: Caroline, her mother and the war-wounded Roderick. Is the house out of time with the world? Is that the root cause of the sadness and strange occurrences? Or is it something else?
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The latest novel from prize-wining author Sarah Waters is a gothic ghost story, set in a run-down country house just after WWII. It centres upon a doctor who is called to attend a patient there and the events that slowly begin to unfold. It's full of atmosphere and is story-telling at its best.
'Sarah Waters' masterly novel is gripping, confident, unnerving and supremely entertaining' Hilary Mantel
In a dusty post-war summer in rural Warwickshire, a doctor is called to a patient at lonely Hundreds Hall. Home to the Ayres family for over two centuries, the Georgian house, once grand and handsome, is now in decline, its masonry crumbling, its gardens choked with weeds, its owners - mother, son and daughter - struggling to keep pace with a changing society. But are the Ayreses haunted by something more sinister than a dying way of life? Little does Dr Faraday know how closely, and how terrifyingly, their story is about to become entwined with his.
'The #1 book of the year... several sleepless nights are guaranteed' Stephen King
'Chilling... a meditation on the nature of the British and class, and how things are rarely what they seem' Kate Mosse
'Waters has determined to scare the pants off her rightly devoted audience. She succeeds unquivocally' Erica Wagner, The Times
'A brilliantly observed story, verging on the comedy, about Britain on the cusp of modern age' Independent on Sunday
'It's a gripping story, with beguiling characters ... As well as being a supernatural tale, it is a meditation on the nature of the British and class, and how things are rarely what they seem. Chilling' Kate Mosse, The Times, Summer Read
'Waters writes with a firm, confident hand, deftly building an atmosphere that begins in a still, hot summer and gradually darkens and tightens until we are as gripped by the escalating horror as the Ayres are. She is particularly good at depicting Hundreds, the dilapidated Georgian pile that dazzles ... Waters' persistent picking apart of class is fascinating' Tracy Chevalier, Observer
'By now readers must be confident of her mastery of storytelling ... While at one turn, the novel looks to be a ghost story, the next it is a psychological drama ... But it is also a brilliantly observed story, verging on the comedy, about Britain on the cusp of modern age ... The writing is subtle and poised' Joy lo Dico, Independent on Sunday
Author
About Sarah Waters
Sarah Waters was born in Wales in 1966 and lives in London. She has a Ph.D in English Literature and has lectured for the Open University. She won the Betty Trask Award for Tipping The Velvet and the Somerset Maugham Award and Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year for Affinity. Fingersmith was shortlisted for both the Orange Prize 2002 and for the Man Booker Prize 2002, and won the CWA Historical Dagger prize before earning her three 2003 Author of the Year awards - from the Booksellers Association, Waterstone's and The British Book Awards. Sarah Waters is also the winner of The South Bank Show Award.
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