Fingersmith
by Sarah Waters
Sue Trinder is an orphan, left as an infant in
the care of Mrs. Sucksby, a "baby farmer," who raised her with
unusual tenderness, as if Sue were her own. Mrs. Sucksby’s household, with its
fussy babies calmed with doses of gin, also hosts a transient family of petty
thievesfingersmithsfor whom this house in the heart of a mean London slum is
home. One day, the most beloved thief of all arrivesGentleman, an elegant con
man, who carries with him an enticing proposition for Sue: If she wins a
position as the maid to Maud Lilly, a naïve gentlewoman, and aids Gentleman in
her seduction, then they will all share in Maud’s vast inheritance. Once the
inheritance is secured, Maud will be disposed ofpassed off as mad, and made to
live out the rest of her days in a lunatic asylum. With dreams of paying back
the kindness of her adopted family, Sue agrees to the plan. Once in, however,
Sue begins to pity her helpless mark and care for Maud Lilly in unexpected
ways...But no one and nothing is as it seems in this Dickensian novel of
thrills and reversals. The New York Times Book Review has called Sarah Waters a
writer of "startling power" and The Seattle Times has praised her
work as "gripping, astute fiction that feeds the mind and the
senses." Fingersmith marks a major leap forward in this young and
brilliant career.
Affinity
by Sarah Waters
An upper-class woman recovering from a suicide attempt, Margaret
Prior has begun visiting the women’s ward of Millbank prison, Victorian
London’s grimmest jail, as part of her rehabilitative charity work. Amongst
Millbank’s murderers and common thieves, Margaret finds herself increasingly
fascinated by on apparently innocent inmate, the enigmatic spiritualist Selina
Dawes. Selina was imprisoned after a séance she was conducting went horribly
awry, leaving an elderly matron dead and a young woman deeply disturbed.
Although initially skeptical of Selina’s gifts, Margaret is soon drawn into a
twilight world of ghosts and shadows, unruly spirits and unseemly passions,
until she is at last driven to concoct a desperate plot to secure Selina’s
freedom, and her own. As in her noteworthy deput, Tipping the Velvet, Sarah
Waters brilliantly evokes the sights and smells of a moody and beguiling
nineteenth-century London, and proves herself yet again a storyteller, in the
words of the New York Times Book Review, of "startling power." A tale
that will leave readers "transfixed with horror and excitement"
(Daily Mail, London) Affinity, in its accomplishment and sophistication, leaves
no doubt as to this writer's considerable gifts.
You can
download both the books from :
No comments:
Post a Comment