The Original
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Simon & Schuster Ltd
Publishing:19th Jun '25
£16.99
This title is due to be published on 19th June, and will be despatched as soon as possible.
‘A delightful, playful puzzle of a novel, and a brilliant twist on the nineteenth century orphan-makes-good story. THE ORIGINAL asks whether, sometimes, faking it is the right thing to do.’ Claire Fuller, author of UNSETTLED GROUND
‘There was a painting my family set on fire. It burned to ashes, and then it came back.’Oxfordshire, 1899. Grace Inderwick grows up on the peripheries of a once-great household, an unwanted guest in her uncle’s home. She has unusual skills and unusual predilections: for painting, though faces elude her; for lurking in the shadows; for other girls.
Then a letter arrives, postmarked Saint Helena. After years missing at sea, Grace’s cousin Charles is ready to come home. When Charles returns, unrecognisable and uncanny, a rift emerges between those who claim he is an imposter and Grace’s aunt, who insists he is her son. And Grace, whose intimate knowledge of forgeries is her own closely-guarded secret, must decide who and what to believe in, and what kind of life she wants to live.
Deftly-plotted and shimmering with Nell Stevens’s distinctive intelligence, style and wit, THE ORIGINAL is a novel about the value of authenticity in art and in love, and what it means to be a true original.
‘A delightful, playful puzzle of a novel, and a brilliant twist on the nineteenth century orphan-makes-good story. THE ORIGINAL asks whether, sometimes, faking it is the right thing to do' * Claire Fuller, author of UNSETTLED GROUND *
‘A gorgeous, wildly seductive novel, shimmering with intelligence, humour and joy’ * Sarah Waters (on BRIEFLY, A DELICIOUS LIFE) *
‘Electrifyingly beautiful, exhilaratingly clever’ * Imogen Hermes Gowar (on BRIEFLY, A DELICIOUS LIFE) *
‘Like the best historical fiction it is playfully disingenuous... the whole book is radiant with life’ * Financial Times (on BRIEFLY, A DELICIOUS LIFE) *
‘Nell Stevens’s hugely accomplished debut novel evokes a sense both of place and time with a confidence that augurs well for her future career’ * Guardian (on BRIEFLY, A DELICIOUS LIFE) *
‘Stevens is a very artful writer’ * Rebecca Mead, The New Yorker (on MRS GASKELL & ME) *
‘A truly lovely book – acutely observed and honest and melancholy’ * Jessie Greengrass (on MRS GASKELL & ME) *
‘Perfect… as funny as it is poignant’ * Lena Dunham (on BLEAKER HOUSE) *
ISBN: 9781398533387
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
400 pages