Release date - 20th April 2017
Book length - 400 pages Book Depository - www.bookdepository.com Amazon UK - The Walworth Beauty Amazon US - www.amazon.com BLURB From the Booker-shortlisted author comes a sensuous, evocative novel exploring the lives of women in Victorian London, for fans of Sarah Waters, Emma Donoghue, and Kate Atkinson. Apricot Place, a cul-de-sac in Walworth: in 1851, a leafy village on the fringes of a rapidly swelling London; in 2011, a clamorous neighborhood where Madeleine moves when she loses her job as a lecturer. Immersing herself in local history, she reads London Labour and the London Poor, Henry Mayhew’s treatise documenting Victorian working class lives. Joseph Benson is one of Mayhew’s researchers, employed to interview the city’s manifold poor, from market traders and shoe-shiners to pickpockets and fraudsters. A family man with mouths to feed, he is tasked with coaxing testimony from prostitutes. He roams the labyrinthine slums of Southwark, but gaudily-painted faces turn hostile when asked for revelations—and Joseph is not immune to the temptations they offer. Yet when he meets Mrs. Dulcimer, the elegant proprietor of a Walworth boarding house, Joseph’s eyes will slowly be opened to the realities of women’s lives. As these entwined stories unfold, alive with the sensations of London past and present, the two eras brush against each other: a breath at Madeleine’s neck, a voice in her head—the city’s ghosts echoing through time. Rendered in sensuous, immediate prose, The Walworth Beauty is a haunting tale of desire and exploitation, isolation and loss, and the faltering search for human connection; Michèle Roberts at her intoxicating, masterful best. MY REVIEW I wasn't sure what to expect from THE WALWORTH BEAUTY by Michèle Roberts and was pleasantly surprised at this deep and meaningful tale of love and life moving from the past to present. In 1851 Joseph's eyes are harshly opened to the reality of life for a woman as he gathers research for Henry Mayhew, while in 2011 Madeleine throws herself back into the past as she becomes engrossed in Mayhew's findings. Through Roberts excellent writing skills that ebb and flow at the perfect moment, the reader becomes a part of the tale effortlessly as you want to soak in everything this story has to offer. THE WALWORTH BEAUTY by Michèle Roberts is an enigmatic and often unsettling story that is about women at its heart - their wants, their needs, their desires, hopes & dreams, and their harsh realities, which transcend time and place to capture the attention of us all. A captivating and thought-provoking read. BOOK RATING - 📖📖📖📖 4 Author Bio: Michèle Brigitte Roberts is the author of fifteen novels, including Ignorance which was nominated for the Women's Prize for Fiction and Daughters of the House which won the W.H. Smith Literary Award and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Her memoir Paper Houses was BBC Radio 4's Book of the Week in June 2007. She has also published poetry and short stories, most recently collected in Mud: Stories of Sex and Love. Half-English and half-French, Roberts lives in London and in the Mayenne, France. She is Emeritus Professor of Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia. For more information: Website - www.micheleroberts.co.uk *I voluntarily reviewed this book from Netgalley.com
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