Ace, King, Knave - Softcover
Behind doors is another story. Behind doors you can do what you like. Sophia - rational, demure, and hiding a 'little weakness' - has recently married the charismatic Mr Zedland. But Zedland has secrets of his own and Sophia comes to suspect that her marriage is not what it seems. In cramped rooms in Covent Garden, Betsy-Ann shuffles a pack of cards. A gambler, dealer in second-hand goods, and living with a grave robber, her life could not be more different to Sophia's - but she too discovers that she has been lied to. As both women take steps to discover the truth, their lives come together through a dramatic series of events, taking the reader through the streets of 1760s London: a city wearing a genteel civility on its surface and rife with hypocrisy, oppression and violence lurking underneath.
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About the Author:
Maria McCann is the author of As Meat Loves Salt (Fourth Estate, 2001) which was an Economist Book of the Year and The Wilding (Faber, 2010) which was longlisted for the Orange Prize and chosen as a Richard and Judy book club choice. She has also contributed to various anthologies, most recently to Why Willows Weep (October 2011) and Beacons (edited by Gregory Norminton, which will appear in 2013).
Review:
An absorbing novel about different kinds of freedom or entrapment; of the heart, of the body, of convention and class, loyalty and lies ... Exploring the seamier side of 18th-century London - poverty, violence, deceit - its dialogue catches something of the foreignness of the past, and is threaded through with a warmth and lightness of touch that makes McCann's world a pleasure to inhabit. Highly diverting. Jane Borodale, author of The Book of Fires and The Knot Absolutely brilliant - I loved it. The characters leap off the page right from the outset. The story is utterly compelling. The historical texture, rich and convincing. The writing is breathtakingly good. R N Morris
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- PublisherFaber & Faber
- Publication date2013
- ISBN 10 0571297595
- ISBN 13 9780571297597
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages497
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Rating