Two women’s journeys through the underbelly of nineteenth-century society are rendered with dark beauty and brittle tenderness in this pitch-perfect recreation of Victorian England in all its urban squalor and rural decay.
Shortlisted for the Orange Prize (now the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction) and the Man Booker Prize
London 1862.
Sue Trinder, orphaned at birth, grows up among petty thieves - fingersmiths - under the rough but loving care of Mrs Sucksby and her 'family'. But from the moment she draws breath, Sue's fate is linked to that of another orphan growing up in a gloomy mansion not too many miles away.
Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
ISBN: 9781860498831
Number of pages: 560
Weight: 436 g
Dimensions: 198 x 131 x 37 mm
Totally immersive with brilliantly drawn characters... a page-turning thriller while managing to be a tender love story - Adam Kay
Intensely atmospheric, impeccably paced, and cunningly structured, this is that rarity in contemporary fiction: a deeply serious novel that is also a thumping great read - Douglas Kennedy, Mail on Sunday
There are always novels that you envy people for not having read yet, for the pleasure they still have to come. Well, this is one. Long, dark, twisted and satisfying, it's a fabulous piece of writing... An unforgettable experience - Julie Myerson, Guardian
One of the best twists of any book, one that lifts the novel from a brilliant piece of modern Victoriana to something altogether more original and daring... Fingersmith, like so many great books, calls into question our desire to fit novels into restrictive boxes... If you like a great story, brilliantly told, you'll love this book - Laura Shepherd-Robinson, The Times
A chilling, ingenious erotic thriller - unputdownable - Sunday Express
She distils a slice of London Victoriana, involving pickpockets, orphans and identity, into a fantastic plot and handles the story so well that you just can't wait to get to the end - Tracy Chevalier
High spirited and utterly compelling - Robert McCrum, Observer
Serious entertainment... One of the most startling plot twists you'll ever read - Nick Hornby, The Times
A thrillerish plot, fast-moving with umpteen cunning twists, it is inhabited by richly human characters whose fortunes instantly engage the reader - Sunday Telegraph
Fingersmith's tight and intricate plotting and full-flavour characters follow in a fine tradition of gothic storytelling, full of love, villains and intrigue - Jane Perry, Observer
This disquietingly twisted tale will engross - Isobel Montgomery, Guardian
Deliciously brazen... A smart and seductive enchantment - Los Angeles Times
Fingersmith is the third slice of engrossing lesbian Victoriana from Sarah Waters. Although lighter and more melodramatic in tone than its predecessor Affinity, this hypnotic suspense novel is awash with all manner of gloomy Dickensian leitmotifs - Travis Elborough
Oliver Twist with a twist... Waters spins an absorbing tale that withholds as much as it discloses... A pulsating story - New York Times Book Review
Superb storytelling. Fingersmith is gripping; so suspenseful and twisting is the plot that for the last 250 pages, I read at breakneck speed - USA Today
A deftly plotted thriller... absorbing and elegant - Entertainment Weekly
A marvelous pleasure... Waters's noted attention to historical detail and her beautifully sensitive dialogue help to anchor the force-five plot twisters - Washington Post
Calls to mind the feverishly gloomy haunts of Charlotte and Emily Bronte... Elaborate and satisfying - Seattle Times
A richly woven tale of duplicity and passion... nobody writing today surpasses the precocious Waters's virtuosic handling of narrative complexity and thickly textured period detail. This is a marvelous novel - Kirkus
A sweeping read - Boston Globe
Astonishing narrative twists - Newsday
It’s difficult to find words for the splendour of Sarah Waters’ writing. When so many boxes require ticking, to enable the reader to say this was a book that fulfilled all their expectations, the discovery that there... More
This is the first book that I read by Sarah Waters and what a joy it was to read. The plot was well thought out and the charecters were belivable. It is set in victorian England and the descripitons of what Sue and... More
This was my first introduction to Sarah Waters and what a great one it was! I loved the two main characters, Maud and Sue who are so completely different and yet their destinies are firmly wrapped around one... More
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