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Bloomsbury Publishing
November 2017
On Sale: November 14, 2017
400 pages ISBN: 1408883392 EAN: 9781408883396 Kindle: B01N66OUON Hardcover / e-Book
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Women's Fiction Historical
From the Booker-shortlisted author comes a sensuous,
evocative novel exploring the lives of women in Victorian
London, for fans of Sarah Waters, Emma Donoghue and Kate
Atkinson 2011: When Madeleine loses her job as a lecturer, she
decides to leave her riverside flat in cobbled Stew Lane,
where history never feels far away, and move to Apricot
Place. Yet here too, in this quiet Walworth cul-de-sac,
she senses the past encroaching: a shifting in the
atmosphere, a current of unseen life. 1851: and Joseph Benson has been employed by Henry Mayhew
to help research his articles on the working classes. A
family man with mouths to feed, Joseph is tasked with
coaxing testimony from prostitutes. Roaming the Southwark
streets, he is tempted by brothels' promises of pleasure
– and as he struggles with his assignment, he seeks
answers in Apricot Place, where the enigmatic Mrs
Dulcimer runs a boarding house. As these entwined stories unfold, alive with the
sensations of London past and present, the two eras brush
against each other – a breath at Madeleine's neck, a
voice in her head – the murmurs of ghosts echoing through
time. Rendered in immediate, intoxicating prose, The
Walworth Beauty is a haunting tale of desire and
exploitation, isolation and loss, and the faltering
search for human connection; this is Michèle Roberts at
her masterful best.
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