See What I Have Done: Longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2018 - Hardcover

Schmidt, Sarah

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1472240863 ISBN 13: 9781472240866

Publisher: Tinder Press, 2017

Synopsis

Haunting, gripping and gorgeously written, SEE WHAT I HAVE DONE by Sarah Schmidt is a re-imagining of the unsolved American true crime case of the Lizzie Borden murders, for fans of BURIAL RITES and MAKING A MURDERER.

Eerie and compelling - Paula Hawkins
Stunning - Sunday Times
Gripping... outstanding - Observer
Glittering - Irish Times

Just after 11am on 4th August 1892, the bodies of Andrew and Abby Borden are discovered. He's found on the sitting room sofa, she upstairs on the bedroom floor, both murdered with an axe.

It is younger daughter Lizzie who is first on the scene, so it is Lizzie who the police first question, but there are others in the household with stories to tell: older sister Emma, Irish maid Bridget, the girls' Uncle John, and a boy who knows more than anyone realises.

In a dazzlingly original and chilling reimagining of this most notorious of unsolved mysteries, Sarah Schmidt opens the door to the Borden home and leads us into its murkiest corners, where jealousies, slow-brewed rivalries and the darkest of thoughts reside.

About this title

Review

Praise for SEE WHAT I HAVE DONE
A National Bestseller

"A bloody good read . . . A taut, lyrical account of the destruction of the Borden family . . . brings to mind Shirley Jackson's We Have Always Lived in the Castle. Everything about Schmidt's novel is hauntingly, beautifully off." --USA Today

"Schmidt has created a lurid and original work of horror." --New York Times Book Re-view

"A prickly, unsettling wonder: a story so tactile and feverishly surreal it feels like a sort of reverse haunting . . . As much as See What I Have Done is Borden's story, it's also an unvarnished glimpse of what it means to be female, in ways not strictly confined to the late 19th century." --Entertainment Weekly

"[Schmidt creates an] atmosphere of brooding dread and lurking neurosis . . . a sense of claustrophobia and entrapment appropriate to her tale of seething jealousies and familial love and hate inextricably in-tertwined." --Boston Globe

"A gripping and still puzzling story." --Wall Street Journal

"Deliciously disturbing . . . [Schmidt's] prose is clever and taut and generously seasoned with nouns verbing their way into literary history." --New York Journal of Books

"A barn-burning, fever-ridden first novel. It makes blistering reading out of first-rate historical fiction . . . Hilary Mantel, in her brilliant re-creation of Thomas Cromwell in Wolf Hall and Bringing Up the Bodies, may be the best practitioner alive, but this book announces Schmidt as a new sister in the craft." --Newsday

"Schmidt is undeniably a fine writer." --Dallas Morning News

"An outstanding debut novel about love, death, and the lifelong repercussions of unresolved grief." --Observer

"Schmidt weaves a complicated, compelling tale . . . giving fresh life to a sensational crime of old." --Marie Claire

"[A] moody, atmospheric tale . . . Superb." --Washington Independent Review of Books

"Novels that manage to spin a genuinely skin-crawling atmosphere, such as Patrick Süskind's Perfume, are rare, and Schmidt is a master . . . See What I Have Done deserves to be considered a Gothic classic." --Saturday Paper

"Debut novelist Sarah Schmidt tackles the murk and silence in this old tale, imagining the cruel secrets of a respected family." --Elle (one of 24 Best Books To Read This Summer)

"[The] novel is compelling, scary--and gruesomely visceral." --Entertainment Weekly (one of Summer's 20 Must-Read Books)

"This palpable imagining of what led to the murder of Lizzie Borden's parents will stay with you for as long as this historical mystery has enthralled pop culture." --Redbook (one of the Best Summer Reads)

"[An] unforgettable debut . . . Equally compelling as a whodunit, 'whydunit, ' and historical novel." --Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"A dazzling debut novel that is as unsettling as the summer heat that permeates the crime scene . . . an unusually intimate portrait. There are books about murder and there are books about imploding families; this is the rare novel that seamlessly weaves the two together, asking as many questions as it answers." --Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"Heralds the arrival of a major new talent . . . Nail-biting horror mixes with a quiet, unforgettable power to create a novel readers will stay up all night finishing." --Booklist (starred review)

"What better subject for a psychological thriller than one of the most notorious murders in U.S. history . . . A fresh treatment of Lizzie Borden." --Library Journal (starred review)

"[A] gory and gripping debut." --Guardian

"Lizzie Borden might be the archetypal transgressive female, and Sarah Schmidt has taken the 81 whacks and the parents that were dealt them and spun a mesmerising reimagining of it all . . . Schmidt writes with precision and flair about the oppressive boredom of domesticity, the twisted intensity of sisterly love and the forlorn dreams of leaving and of personal reinvention . . . A glittering, gory fever dream of a book, See What I Have Done is a remarkable debut." --Telegraph

"This novel is like a crazy murdery fever dream, swirling around the day of the murders. Schmidt has written not just a tale of a crime, but a novel of the senses. There is hardly a sentence that goes by without mention of some sensation, whether it's a smell or a sound or a taste, and it is this complete saturation of the senses that enables the novel to soak into your brain and envelope you in creepy uncomfortableness. It's a fabulous, unsettling book." --Book Riot

"Eerie and compelling, Sarah Schmidt breathes such life into the terrible, twisted tale of Lizzie Borden and her family, she makes it impossible to look away." --Paula Hawkins, author of The Girl on the Train

"Everyone knows the rhyme. We've all heard the story. But not until you read See What I Have Done will you learn the truth behind one of the most spine-tingling horror stories of all time. In this stunning debut novel, Sarah Schmidt transforms the Lizzie Borden story from lurid infamy to flawed reality." --Christina Baker Kline, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Orphan Train

"Sarah Schmidt's beautifully wrought See What I Have Done is a compelling, psychologically rich take on a well-loved tale, bringing new insight into the myth of just who Lizzie Borden was. This glorious gothic novel brings to mind the work of Sarah Waters and Patrick McGrath." --Sabina Murray, author of Valiant Gentlemen

"Haunting, evocative and psychologically taut, See What I Have Done breathes fresh life into the infamous 19th-century murder case surrounding Lizzie Borden. This is a powerful, beautifully researched debut novel that brings us into contact with the recurring American dramas of violence and retribution while summoning the beguiling voices of the past." --Dominic Smith, author of the New York Times bestseller The Last Painting of Sara de Vos

Book Description

'Eeerie and compelling' Paula Hawkins - SEE WHAT I HAVE DONE is a haunting retelling of the infamous Lizzie Borden murders from a dazzling debut novelist.

About this edition

• Publisher: Tinder Press
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 1472240863
• ISBN 13: 9781472240866
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 336