A01=Alix Nathan
absorbing novel
Author_Alix Nathan
Category=FB
Category=FV
early scientific experiment
eighteenth century england
eq_bestseller
eq_fiction
eq_historical-fiction
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
escapist reads
frankenstein
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historical fiction
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novels set in wales
peterloo massacre
sedition
upstairs downstairs
welsh marches
Product details
- ISBN 9781788161701
- Weight: 250g
- Dimensions: 128 x 198mm
- Publication Date: 01 Jul 2020
- Publisher: Profile Books Ltd
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Paperback
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A Sunday Times fiction book of the year
'She is an original, with a virtuoso touch' - Hilary Mantel
'An extraordinary, quite brilliant book' - C. J. Sansom
'A powerful and unsettling novel' - Andrew Taylor
The year is 1793 and Herbert Powyss is set on making his name as a scientist. Determined to study the effects of prolonged solitude on another human being, he advertises for someone willing to live in his cellar for seven years in return for a generous financial reward. The only man to apply is John Warlow, a semi-literate farm labourer with a wife and six children to support. Cut off from nature, Warlow soon begins losing his grip on sanity while, above ground, Powyss rapidly becomes obsessed with Warlow's wife, Hannah.
The experiment, a classic Enlightenment exercise gone more than a little mad, will have unforeseen consequences for all included. In this seductive tale of self-delusion and obsession, Alix Nathan has created an utterly transporting historical novel which is both elegant and unforgettably sinister.
One of 2019's most high-profile hardback publications, now out in paperback.
Featured on Radio Four's Book at Bedtime
BBC History Magazine Best Historical Fiction of 2019
Alix Nathan read English and Music at York University. She lives in the Welsh Marches where she owns some ancient woodland with her husband. Her short stories have been published in Ambit, The London Magazine and New Welsh Review and read on BBC Radio 4.
