The fraud
Author
Publisher
Varies, see individual formats and editions
Publication Date
2023.
Language
English
Appears on these lists
Description
The New York Times bestseller • One of the New York Times 10 Best Books of the Year • One of NPR's Best Books of the Year • Named a Best Book of the Year by Publishers Weekly and BookPage • One of Oprah Daily's Best Novels of 2023“[A] brilliant new entry in Smith’s catalog . . . The Fraud is not a change for Smith, but a demonstration of how expansive her talents are.” —Los Angeles TimesFrom acclaimed and bestselling novelist Zadie Smith, a kaleidoscopic work of historical fiction set against the legal trial that divided Victorian England, about who gets to tell their story—and who gets to be believed It is 1873. Mrs. Eliza Touchet is the Scottish housekeeper—and cousin by marriage—of a once-famous novelist, now in decline, William Ainsworth, with whom she has lived for thirty years. Mrs. Touchet is a woman of many interests: literature, justice, abolitionism, class, her cousin, his wives, this life and the next. But she is also sceptical. She suspects her cousin of having no talent; his successful friend, Mr. Charles Dickens, of being a bully and a moralist; and England of being a land of facades, in which nothing is quite what it seems. Andrew Bogle, meanwhile, grew 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 realize. When Bogle finds himself in London, star witness in a celebrated case of imposture, he knows his future depends on telling the right story. The “Tichborne Trial”—wherein a lower-class butcher from Australia claimed he was in fact the rightful heir of a sizable estate and title—captivates Mrs. Touchet and all of England. Is Sir Roger Tichborne really who he says he is? Or is he a fraud? Mrs. Touchet is a woman of the world. Mr. Bogle is no fool. But in a world of hypocrisy and self-deception, deciding what is real proves a complicated task. . . . Based on real historical events, The Fraud is a dazzling novel about truth and fiction, Jamaica and Britain, fraudulence and authenticity and the mystery of “other people.”
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Contributors
Smith, Zadie Narrator, Author
ISBN
9780525558965
9780525558972
9780593792643
9780593788783
9780525558972
9780593792643
9780593788783
Appears on these lists
Subjects
Subjects
Ainsworth, William Harrison, -- 1805-1882 -- Fiction
Cousins -- Fiction
Enslaved persons -- Fiction
False personation -- Fiction
Fiction
Great Britain -- History -- 19th century -- Fiction
Historical Fiction
Housekeepers -- Fiction
Impostors and imposture -- Fiction
Literature
London (England) -- Fiction
Orton, Arthur, -- 1834-1898 -- Trials, litigation, etc. -- Fiction
Peerage claims -- Great Britain -- Fiction
Self-deception -- Fiction
Trials -- England -- History -- 19th century -- Fiction
Trials -- Fiction
Truthfulness and falsehood -- Fiction
Cousins -- Fiction
Enslaved persons -- Fiction
False personation -- Fiction
Fiction
Great Britain -- History -- 19th century -- Fiction
Historical Fiction
Housekeepers -- Fiction
Impostors and imposture -- Fiction
Literature
London (England) -- Fiction
Orton, Arthur, -- 1834-1898 -- Trials, litigation, etc. -- Fiction
Peerage claims -- Great Britain -- Fiction
Self-deception -- Fiction
Trials -- England -- History -- 19th century -- Fiction
Trials -- Fiction
Truthfulness and falsehood -- Fiction
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