The Fraud
The Instant Sunday Times Bestseller
By Zadie Smith
Harry Hartog's review
I liked it, but I don’t think I was in the mood for it at the time? Don’t get me wrong, Zadie Smith is one of the best writers in the world. Period. To me this book just felt a lot more like a passion project than a well crafted historical novel. But hey, it was still really good & I am really glad I read it. Recommend to anyone who likes historical lit (heavy on the lit, Zadie is SMART) or looking for a pick-up-put-down vibe. The chapters are very short so it’s a good bus/train read. - Lauren, Subscriptions
Description
The chronicler of contemporary London, acclaimed and bestselling author Zadie Smith, returns with her first historical novel
Kilburn, 1873. The 'Tichborne Trial' has captivated the widowed Scottish housekeeper Mrs Eliza Touchet and all of England. Readers are at odds over whether the defendant is who he claims to be - or an imposter.
Mrs Touchet is a woman of many interests- literature, justice, abolitionism, class, her novelist cousin and his wives, this life and the next. But she is also sceptical. She suspects England of being a land of fa ades, in which nothing is quite what it seems.
Andrew Bogle meanwhile finds himself the star witness, his future depending on telling the right story. Growing up enslaved on the Hope Plantation, Jamaica, he knows every lump of sugar comes at a human cost. That the rich deceive the poor. And that people are more easily manipulated than they realise.
Based on real historical events, The Fraud is a dazzling novel about how in a world of hypocrisy and self-deception, deciding what's true can prove a complicated task.
- ISBN:
- 9780241337004
- Format:
- Paperback / softback
- Pages:
- 464
- Published:
- Publisher:
- Penguin Books Ltd
- Imprint:
- Hamish Hamilton Ltd
- Weight:
- 560 g