The Confessions of Frannie Langton: Now a major new series with ITVX - Softcover

Collins, Sara

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0241984017 ISBN 13: 9780241984017

Publisher: Penguin, 2019

Synopsis

'Deep-diving and elegant . . . Wide Sargasso Sea meets Beloved meets Alias Grace' Margaret Atwood

THE 'DAZZLINGLY ORIGINAL' DEBUT NOVEL BY A NEW LITERARY STAR

'They say I must be put to death for what happened to Madame, and they want me to confess. But how can I confess what I don't believe I've done?'

1826, and all of London is in a frenzy. Crowds gather at the gates of the Old Bailey to watch as Frannie Langton, maid to Mr and Mrs Benham, goes on trial for their murder. The testimonies against her are damning - slave, whore, seductress. And they may be the truth. But they are not the whole truth.

For the first time Frannie must tell her story. It begins with a girl learning to read on a plantation in Jamaica, and it ends in a grand house in London, where a beautiful woman waits to be freed.

But through her fevered confessions, one burning question haunts Frannie Langton: could she have murdered the only person she ever loved?

A WATERSTONES BOOK OF THE MONTH

A beautiful and haunting tale about one woman's fight to tell her story, The Confessions of Frannie Langton leads you through laudanum-laced dressing rooms and dark-as-night back alleys, into the enthralling heart of Georgian London.

'A dazzling page-turner' Emma Donoghue
'A star in the making' Sunday Times
'Gothic fiction made brand new' Stef Penney
'Stunning' Guardian
'Spectacular' Natasha Pulley
'Dazzlingly original' The Times
'A heroine for our times' Elizabeth Day

About this title

Review:

A bold and timely reinvention of the classic gothic novel ( . . .) which, with its tentative exploration of passion and transgression of boundaries, is reminiscent of the best of Sarah Waters (Observer)

Wide Sargasso Sea meets Beloved meets Alias Grace . . . deep-diving, elegant

Frannie Langton is an unforgettable heroine, one who boldly reclaims her narrative within the context of a history that seeks to silence her. The Confessions of Fannie Langton is gorgeous-Gothic writing at its very best (Christine Mangan, author of 'Tangerine')

A seductive and entrancing read, with captivating historical detail...The Confessions of Frannie Langton is an extremely powerful book that resonates long after the final page has been turned. (Laura Carlin, author of 'The Wicked Cometh')

An impressive debut, dazzlingly original (The Times)

Bold and powerful (The Sunday Times)

With echoes of Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea and Sara Waters's The Paying Guests, this is an accomplished debut novel that perfectly captures the atmosphere of Georgian London and gives voice to a singular and unforgettable heroine (Red Magazine)

'I usually pick proofs up, read the blurb, maybe read a few pages... and that is usually that. This time, I started reading it - and then I couldn't stop. Sara Collins has created a tough, fiery, vividly alive character. Beautifully written, in crisp and careful prose; but more than that, it comes across as a story that's been waiting to be written for a very long time...[Collins] has picked up the tradition of gothic fiction and made it brand new.' (Stef Penney, author of 'The Tenderness of Wolves')

By turns lush, gritty, wry, gothic and compulsive, The Confessions of Frannie Langton is a dazzling page turner. With as much psychological savvy as righteous wrath, Sara Collins twists together the slave narrative, bildungsroman, love story and crime novel to make something new.' (Emma Donoghue, author of 'Room')

A book of heart, soul and guts...beautifully written, lushly evocative, and righteously furious. Frannie might be a 19th century character, but she is also a heroine for our times (Elizabeth Day, author of 'The Party')

About the Author:

Sara Collins studied law at the London School of Economics and worked as a lawyer for seventeen years. In 2014 she embarked upon the Creative Writing Masters at Cambridge University, where she won the 2015 Michael Holroyd Prize of Re-creative Writing and was shortlisted for the 2016 Lucy Cavendish Prize for a book inspired by her love of gothic fiction. This turned into her first novel, The Confessions of Frannie Langton.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin
• Publication date: 2019
• ISBN 10: 0241984017
• ISBN 13: 9780241984017
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 384