Edith, an elderly widow with a large house in an Islington garden square, needs a carer. Lauren, a nail technician born in the East End, needs somewhere to live. A rent-free room in lieu of pay seems the obvious solution, even though the pair have nothing in common. Or do they? Why is Lauren so fascinated by Edith's childhood in colonial Kenya? Is Paul, the handsome lodger in the basement, the honest broker he appears? And how does Charity, a Kenyan girl brutally tortured during the Mau Mau rebellion, fit into the equation? Capturing the spirited interplay between two women divided by class, generation and a deeper gulf from the past, and offering vivid flashbacks to 1950s East Africa, Madeline Dewhurst's captivating debut spins a web of secrets and deceit - where it's not always obvious who is the spider and who is the fly.
'An extraordinarily accomplished debut' - Buzz Magazine, 'In Charity, Dewhurst examines patterns of guilt, recognition, shame and agency. A taut, fraught, stylish and important novel about notions of the culpable and the complicit, drawing upon the facts and fictions of an oft-neglected moment in history' - Eley Williams, 'By turns humorous and heart-wrenching, impeccably researched and beautifully written throughout, this is a haunting and original debut that demands to be read' - Lianne Dillsworth, 'Dazzling...brilliantly merges the past and present and keeps you guessing till the end' - Emily Bullock, 'Assured and impressive, it's hard to believe Charity is a first novel' - Tony Saint, 'An accomplished story teller, Dewhurst takes the reader on a suspenseful journey exposing dark family secrets. A brilliant debut that shines a light on our colonial past and its haunting effect on the present' - Julia Barrett
- Commended for Bath Novel Award 2020
ISBN: 9781785632303
Dimensions: 198mm x 129mm x 18mm
Weight: 240g
304 pages