Truth and fiction. Jamaica and Britain. Who gets to tell their story?
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 facades, 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: | 9780241336991 |
| Publication date: | 7th September 2023 |
| Author: | Zadie Smith |
| Publisher: | Hamish Hamilton Ltd an imprint of Penguin Books Ltd |
| Format: | Hardback |
| Pagination: | 455 pages |
| Primary Genre | Historical Fiction |
| Other Genres: |
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Truth and fiction. Jamaica and Britain. Who gets to tell their story?
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 facades, 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.
The Fraud features in the following genres: Historical Fiction, Modern and Contemporary Fiction, Narrative theme: Sense of place, Narrative theme: Social issues, Fiction, General Fiction, Fiction: narrative themes
The Fraud is available in Paperback, Hardback
The Fraud was written by Zadie Smith and published by Hamish Hamilton Ltd an imprint of Penguin Books Ltd
The Fraud has 455 pages
£18.00
