"Eine faszinierende Reise ins schillernde Berlin der dreißiger Jahre.
In den turbulenten Zwischenkriegsjahren ist in Berlin nichts wie es scheint. Die junge Kunststudentin Emmeline imitiert bekannte Künstlerporträts für Werbekampagnen und lässt sich auf riskante Bekanntschaften ein. Der Kunstkritiker Julius, der seine Gemälde mehr liebt als seine Familie, überschätzt sich gnadenlos selbst und tappt damit in die Falle. Und der jüdische Anwalt Frank versucht verzweifelt, seinen Prinzipien treu zu bleiben, ohne dabei das Leben seiner Frau zu gefährden. Kurz vor dem Ausbruch des Zweiten Weltkriegs flüchtet man sich im Kunstmilieu in Rausch und Übermut – am weitesten geht der junge Kunsthändler Matthias, der alle mit seinem Charme um den Finger wickelt und einen Skandal auslöst."
"It is 1910. Jessica and Phyllis Melville have grown up at Ellinghurst, their family estate. A headstrong beauty, Jessica longs for London—the glitter and glamor of debutante life— while bookish Phyllis dreams in vain of attending the university. Neither girl questions that it is Theo, their adored brother, whom their mother loves best. Theo eclipses everyone around him, including the diffident Oskar Grunewald, who is a frequent visitor to Ellinghurst. Fascinated by the house but alternately tormented and ignored by the Melville children, Oskar seeks refuge in Ellinghurst's enormous library.
Over the next decade, as the Great War devastates and reshapes their world, the sisters come of age in a country unrecognizable from the idylls of their youth. As they struggle to forge new paths in a world that no longer plays by the old rules, Oskar's life becomes entwined with theirs once again, in ways that will change all of their futures forever."
"It is 1887, and an unsettled London is preparing for Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee. For Maribel Campbell Lowe, the beautiful, bohemian wife of a maverick politician, it is the year she plans to make her own mark on the world. But her husband's outspoken views inspire enmity as well as admiration - and the wife of a member of parliament should not be hiding the kind of secrets Maribel has buried in her past. When a notorious newspaper editor begins to take an uncommon interest in her, Maribel fears he will destroy not only her husband's career but both of their reputations.
Beautiful Lies is set in a Jubilee year that, fraught with economic uncertainty, riots and tabloid scandal-mongering, uncannily presages our own. Praised by Hilary Mantel as 'one of those writers who can see into the past and help us feel its texture', Clark has created a brilliant, riveting novel that illuminates both Victorian England and our own times."
"It is 1718 and, in a small parish near Newcastle, Eliza Tally, a headstrong girl of sixteen, embarks on a reckless love affair that will prove her undoing. When her lover casts her off, denying their union, she is forced to travel to London, a city that attracts and alarms her in equal measure. There, she takes up a position in the house of an apothecary, Grayson Black, whom she trusts to salvage what remains of her reputation..."