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In late September 1874, Margaret Prior makes her way through the pentagons of London's Millbank Prison, a place of fearful symmetry and endless corridors. This plain woman on the verge of 30 has come to comfort those behind bars, several of whom Waters brings to instant, sad life. And our Lady Visitor plans to take her role dead seriously, having recovered from two years of nervous indolence in her family's Chelsea house. One person, however, makes her job a passion. Opening an inspection slit (or "eye" as these devices are known), Margaret hears "a perfect sigh, like a sigh in a story." Peering inward, she's confronted by the most erotic of visions--a woman turned toward the sun, caressing her cheek with a forbidden violet: "As I watched, she put the flower to her lips, and breathed upon it, and the purple of the petals gave a quiver and seemed to glow..."
Selina Dawes may indeed have the face of a Crivelli angel, but this medium is in for fraud and assault, her last session having gone very badly indeed. Suffice it to say that the first full encounter between these two very different women is enthralling. "You think spiritualism a kind of fancy," Selina riddles. "Doesn't it seem to you, now you are here, that anything might be real, since Millbank is?" And soon enough Margaret receives several viable signs of the supernatural: a locket disappears from her room, flowers mysteriously appear, and her dazzling friend knows everything about her. Strangest of all, Selina seems to love her.
As Margaret records her weekly prison forays, her own past comes into focus, notably her plans to travel to Italy with her first love (who is now her sister-in-law). But her current journal, she convinces herself, is to be very different from her last one, which "took as long to burn as human hearts, they say, do take." Meanwhile, Waters offers a narrative two-for-one, placing Margaret's diary cheek by jowl with Selina's chronicle of her pre-Millbank existence. This dispassionate, staccato record initially suggests that we can separate truth from desire. Or can we? What Waters's haunting creation leaves us with is a more painful reality--that knowledge and belief are entirely different things. --Kerry Fried
Sarah Waters is the New York Times bestselling author of The Little Stranger, The Night Watch, Fingersmith, Affinity, and Tipping the Velvet. She has three times been short-listed for the Man Booker Prize, twice been a finalist for the Orange Prize, and was named one of Granta’s best young British novelists, among other distinctions. Waters lives in London.
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Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. Set in and around the women's prison at Milbank in the 1870's , AFFINITY is an eerie and utterly compelling ghost story, a complex and intriguing literary mystery and a poignant love story with an unexpected twist in the tale. Following the death of her father, Margaret Prior has decided to pursue some 'good work' with the lady criminals of one of London's most notorious gaols. Surrounded by prisoners, murderers and common thieves, Margaret feels herself drawn to one of the prisons more unlikely inmates - the imprisoned spiritualist - Selina Dawes. Sympathetic to the plight of this innocent-seeming girl, Margaret sees herself dispensing guidance and perhaps friendship on her visits, little expecting to find herself dabbling in a twilight world of seances, shadows, unruly spirits and unseemly passions. Set in and around the women's prison at Milbank in the 1870's, Affinity is a ghost story, a literary mystery and a love story with an unexpected twist in the tale. Following the death of her father, Margaret Prior has decided to pursue some 'good work' with the lady criminals of one of London's most notorious gaols. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability. Seller Inventory # 9781860496929
Book Description paperback. Condition: New. Language: ENG. Seller Inventory # 9781860496929
Book Description Paperback / softback. Condition: New. New copy - Usually dispatched within 4 working days. * An eerie and utterly compelling novel of mystery and seduction set in a women's prison in Victorian London. Seller Inventory # B9781860496929
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Book Description Paperback. Condition: Brand New. 368 pages. 7.76x5.00x1.22 inches. In Stock. Seller Inventory # __186049692X
Book Description Condition: New. 2012. UK ed. Paperback. * An eerie and utterly compelling novel of mystery and seduction set in a women's prison in Victorian London. Series: Virago V S. Num Pages: 368 pages. BIC Classification: FA. Category: (G) General (US: Trade). Dimension: 197 x 128 x 26. Weight in Grams: 280. . . . . . Seller Inventory # V9781860496929
Book Description Condition: New. 2012. UK ed. Paperback. * An eerie and utterly compelling novel of mystery and seduction set in a women's prison in Victorian London. Series: Virago V S. Num Pages: 368 pages. BIC Classification: FA. Category: (G) General (US: Trade). Dimension: 197 x 128 x 26. Weight in Grams: 280. . . . . . Books ship from the US and Ireland. Seller Inventory # V9781860496929
Book Description Paperback. Condition: New. Seller Inventory # 6666-GRD-9781860496929