The Palace of Curiosities - Softcover

Garland, Rosie

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0007492782 ISBN 13: 9780007492787

Publisher: The Borough Press, 2013

Synopsis

A luminous and bewitching debut novel that is perfect for fans of Angela Carter. Set in Victorian London, it follows the fortunes of Eve, the Lion-Faced Girl and Abel, the Flayed Man. A magical realism delight.

Before Eve is born, her mother goes to the circus. She buys a penny twist of coloured sugar and settles down to watch the heart-stopping main attraction: a lion, billed as a monster from the savage heart of Africa, forged in the heat of a merciless sun. Mama swears she hears the lion sigh, just before it leaps...and when Eve is born, the story goes, she didn’t cry – she meowed and licked her paws.

When Abel is pulled from the stinking Thames, the mudlarks are sure he is long dead. As they search his pockets to divvy up the treasure, his eyes crack open and he coughs up a stream of black water. But how has he survived a week in that thick stew of human waste?

Cast out by Victorian society, Eve and Abel find succour from an unlikely source. They will become The Lion Faced Girl and The Flayed Man, star performers in Professor Josiah Arroner’s Palace of Curiosities. And there begins a journey that will entwine their fates forever.

About this title

Product Description:

Title: Palace of Curiosities <>Binding: Paperback <>Author: Rosie Garland <>Publisher: Harper Collins Paperbacks

Review:

‘Garland’s lush prose is always a pleasure’ GUARDIAN

‘An alternately brutal and beautiful story about love and belonging in a vividly conveyed underworld, rich in carny phantasmagoria and lyrical romance’ METRO

‘Bewitching’ GOOD HOUSEKEEPING

‘A jewel-box of a novel ... Garland is a real literary talent: definitely an author to watch’ Sarah Waters

‘Reminds me of Angela Carter’ Jenni Murray

About this edition

• Publisher: The Borough Press
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 0007492782
• ISBN 13: 9780007492787
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 336