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    Affinity
    Affinity
    Affinity
    Audiobook15 hours

    Affinity

    Written by Sarah Waters

    Narrated by Juanita McMahon

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Named Author of the Year at the 2003 British Book Awards, Sarah Waters is the author of Tipping the Velvet (H1470), a New York Times Notable Book. Once inside the concrete walls of Millbank Prison, Margaret Prior, hired to speak with the female inmates, becomes all too aware that what she perceives to be reality may not be so. Bringing new ideas to her mind is the beautiful, but dangerous criminal Selina Dawes.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateJan 27, 2012
    ISBN9781461812791
    Affinity
    Author

    Sarah Waters

    Sarah Waters nació en Gales, Gran Bretaña, en 1966. Estudió literatura inglesa en las universidades de Kent y Lancaster, y ha publicado artículos sobre género, sexualidad e historia en revistas como Feminist Review, Journal of the History of Sexuality y Science as Culture. En enero de 2003 fue seleccionada por la revista Granta en su lista decenal de los Young British Novelists.

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    Reviews for Affinity

    3.5/5

    1,079 ratings81 reviews

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    • 4/5
      This is the story of two women, both prisoners in their own different ways and drawn together by a special bond - their 'affinity'.Margaret Prior is a single woman of twenty nine who, following the death of her father, begins visiting London's Millbank Prison as a Lady Visitor. Lady Visitors were women who voluntarily visited prisoners with the aim of befriending them and giving them comfort during the time of their imprisonment. However, Margaret is in need of some friendship and comfort herself. From her very first visit, she finds herself strangely drawn to Selina Dawes, a young spiritualist imprisoned for assault after one of her spiritualism sessions goes badly wrong, leaving a woman dead and a girl traumatised. Selina blames her 'control spirit', Peter Quick, for what happened, but is she telling the truth? Throughout the story, the reader is made to wonder whether Selina really has the powers she claims to have or if Margaret is the victim of an elaborate hoax.The book is told in the form of diary entries - Margaret's longer sections being interspersed with Selina's shorter ones. Margaret's diary entries are very bleak and miserable, as she is trying to cope not only with the loss of her father, but also with her feelings for both Selina and her sister-in-law Helen, the expectations of her domineering mother, and the sense of being 'left behind' that she experiences when her younger sister gets married and leaves home. Selina's sections of the story are very vague and confusing and I didn't fully understand them until I went back and read them again after reaching the end of the book.I enjoyed learning about life in a Victorian prison, as it's not something I've read about in so much detail before. Waters does a wonderful job of conveying the oppressive atmosphere of Millbank, with its labyrinthine corridors and gloomy wards.I haven't read all of Sarah Waters' books yet so I can't really say where Affinity stands in comparison to her others, but I thought it was an excellent book - dark, suspenseful, moving and with some passages that were genuinely spooky.
    • 4/5
      Set in the late 1800's, this book is about Margaret Prior who will be turning 30 soon and is still unmarried. Her father died not long ago and she is still in mourning; mourning for her father and also for what she thought her life would be like. On the advice of one of her late father's friends, she decides to become a 'Lady Visitor' to Millbank prison. In the prison, she meets Selina Dawes, a medium in prison for assault and fraud. The book goes back and forth between the developing relationship between Margaret and Selina and a first person account from Selina that describes events leading up to her imprisonment. I did not expect the ending; it has you considering what was real and what was fake. Well done.
    • 4/5
      Affinity tells the story of the mentally unstable 30-year-old Margarent (she of many names), still in mourning for her beloved father and for a broken relationship, who, as a form of duty and generally putting herself out into society again as an upper-class woman, begins visiting dreary Millbank prison as a "Lady Visitor." Her visits there are intended to be morally uplilfiting for the prisoners locked away therein. She quickly becomes infatuated with the intriguing and myterious Selina Dawes, a spiritualist medium, who is serving a most unusual of sentences. Selina seems to know more about Margaret than is possible, seems to be able to communicate with her across spatial divides; she seems generally unconstrained by what holds others in. In her journal, which forms the bulk of the narrative, Margaret charts her increasing obsession with this young woman while also making observations about the miserable conditions of the prison and the inequity of the way men are allowed to conduct themselves in the rigid Victorian society (though she seems to remain blind to class difference, with a few flashes of insight).Affinity has several things going for it: it's beautifully written, with passages of the protaganist, Margarent's, elegant, lush, fevered prose alternating with short sections of the prisoner Selina's short matter-of-fact writings. It truly brings the world of Millbank prison to life; it's hard to come away from a description of it and not feel enclosed and cold yourself. Waters has a truly exacting eye for detail; the Victorian world comes to vivid life. It's also a crash course in spiritualism; without ever belaboring points or dragging the reader through tedious academic detail, you manage to learn a good bit about mediumship and the tricks of the trade as well as about the popular perception of mediumship in the 1870s. Waters has clearly done her background work.And yet . . . it's hard to feel any true sympathy for Margaret. She has one clear insight into the differences of class that I can think of; otherwise, she seems blind to the fact that all the women in prison are lower class and obliged to kowtow to her (though the wardens often snidely point out that there are "ladies" there, too). Her prose can turn somewhat purple at times; whether this is intended to reflect her overagitated state of mind or is simply Waters getting carried away, I do not know, but it does wear thin and bog the novel down sometimes. And, as other reviewers have noted, the "mystery" to the novel is a little bit obvious; the big reveal isn't all that much of a surprise, which is disappointing. A few of the characters run to the stereotype: the obnoxious little sister, the overbearing mother. I would have liked to have heard more about Pa, would have liked to have more about him fleshed out, especially as he is so integral to Margaret's life. It's as if most of the work in characterization went into making Selina mysterious and hard to pin down, and the other characters were made a little less rich for it.Still, the novel is an interesting snapshot of the repressive Victorian era: repressive in its sexual mores, repressive in its family structures, repressive in its morality, repressive in its beliefs, &c. It is morbidly fascinating to watch one woman's mind degenerate and bloom in other ways as she expands the limits of what she finds acceptable. It's like watching a flower blossom while knowing all the while that it must die.
    • 3/5
      This was an interesting novel about two young women in Victorian London. Margaret Prior is a society lady who is trying to reenter life after she attempted to take her life. She takes to visiting a local prison and befriends a former famous spiritualist, Selina Dawes, who is in prison for murder. There are lesbian undertones, especially with Prior's affinity toward Dawes. Intriguing, sometimes slow going, but overall, really interseting.
    • 3/5
      Margaret Prior, a young woman who does not fit neatly into Victorian society is recovering from a suicide attempt after the death of her beloved father. As a way to occupy her time she becomes a Lady Visitor at a local prison. It is here that she meets and subsequently becomes obsessed with Selina Dawes, a spiritualist imprisoned after a seance gone wrong.I have to admit I have no idea how to rate this book. It was painfully slow at times, yet Sarah Waters does a brilliant job of building a growing sense of dread. I loved how the themes of imprisonment in Victorian society-both literal and figurative-underlay the whole story. She is so successful at creating a dark, uncomfortable atmosphere that it is actual rather hard to enjoy sitting down with the book. And while you can tell there is a twist coming, you can't quite put your finger on it until the very last pages. A different kind of read, for sure.
    • 4/5
      I loved the first 2/3 of it, until I guessed the ending, which made it much less enjoyable. The coming plot twist was obvious long before it should have been. Still, Ms Waters is an extremely talented writer. I only wish she had been more subtle with the foreshowing this time.
    • 4/5
      Took two readings to fully appreciate. I'm a big Sarah Waters fan and have been for many years. I've read all of her books, in the order that they were published. My first reading of Affinity left me very disappointed. Many of my friends had read it and raved about how great it was - it's the favorite SW book for some of them.

      After reading nothing but lesbian fiction - primarily romance - for several years, I've gotten back into reading horror and thrillers and mysteries. It took me quite a while to give Waters' The Little Stranger a shot. I was less than thrilled with The Night Watch because I found it pretty slow and it didn't hold my interest. The backward storytelling didn't help. But once I got into The Little Stranger, why I fell in love with her work in the first place came back. Except now she was telling ghost stories. It started me thinking about Affinity again and I decided then that I would eventually give it another shot.

      I picked up the audio version of the book and a couple days ago I finally loaded it up and got to listening. This time around I can finally say that I completely enjoyed Affinity. I believe that my expectations of it being a lesbian romance ruined the book for me the first time around. I kept waiting for the romance to really pick up - you have to remember that this book followed Tipping the Velvet and Fingersmith, both romances (although Fingersmith is more of a mystery) - and when it didn't, I suppose I felt a bit betrayed. Misled, at least.

      Going into the second reading knowing that it isn't a romance but a paranormal mystery of sorts made a huge difference. I was able to fully appreciate the twists and turns and let myself really see the relationships as they were written, not as my subconscious kept telling me they were supposed to be.

      Sarah Waters can write some emotionally dark fiction. I love it and can't say that I'm sorry that she's not writing romance anymore. Although there was definitely a romantic angle in The Paying Guests it was so much more.

      Hurry, Ms. Waters, hurry! I'm ready for a new book!
    • 3/5
      fiction (historical fiction: ghosts/spirit mediums, women prisoners, women's mental health, LGBTQA interest)
      I think I liked Tipping the Velvet better (maybe because things actually happen to progress the plot?), but it's been a while.
      atmospheric, character-driven, slow.
    • 3/5
      Another Victorian gothic from Waters. This one certainly can't be described as a thriller, as its pace is slow and fairly lacking in drama. I kept waiting to get a hint of what she was up to, and when I thought I had, she finally revealed the twist, and then I felt a little stupid not to have suspected something. The ultimate ending, however, did not surprise me. The narrator is Margaret Prior, a troubled young woman who has suffered a mental breakdown ending in a suicide attempt after her father's death. The rest of her family doesn't get her at all, and shows very little interest in trying to. There are hints of a romantic attachment to the woman who eventually married Margaret's brother; her sister Priscilla is totally absorbed in plans for her own wedding and honeymoon trip to Italy, while Mother is only concerned with propriety and appearances. Margaret takes up the role of "Lady Visitor" at the women's wards Millbank Prison, which is as gothic and horrid a hell-hole as you can imagine. The details of life for women convicted of everything from petty theft to murder are grimly fascinating, if you are of a mind to be fascinated by such things. Margaret naturally becomes somewhat unnaturally attached to one woman, who introduces her to the concept of spiritualism (meaning contact with the dead). This can't end well, we know, but Margaret finds her visits with Selina to be high points in her dreary life, and she begins to imagine a future...well, that's enough. If you're in the mood to drift along through a couple hundred pages of good writing where nothing much happens, to get to the "aha" moment, this is a decent read. Not up to Waters' best efforts (Tipping the Velvet or Fingersmith), but not many things are.
    • 3/5
      Interesting Victorian pastiche mystery concerning a lonely woman, virtually imprisoned as the spinster daughter who must care for her mother. She becomes a prison visitor to do Good Works and meets a woman who's serving time for fraud and assault as a spirit medium. We read diary entries that reveal clues about each woman's past and what turns into an obsession. Interesting stuff about spiritualism in the 19th century and a suspenseful story with well drawn characters.
    • 5/5
      Just a wonderful, clever book. Waters' meticulous construction of 1870s London (and Millbank Prison in particular) frames an intriguing, climax-building story of obsession and exploitation. All the women in the book seem trapped in their own particular prisons: filial duty, marriage, Millbank, grief. It's a sad read, but a gripping one.
    • 5/5
      I love this book. Like, a lot. I have a very soft spot for books that feature unrequited love and characters struggling with depression, and this book had heaps of both.

      One of the things I loved best the exploration of Margaret's relationship with Helen via juxtaposition with her relationship with Selina.

      The writing is lovely; the simplest lines are absolutely devastating. Waters creates an unsettling, oppressive atmosphere that creeps in slowly as the book progresses. And the ending was completely fitting -- and a painful mix of satisfying and unsatisfying all at once.
    • 5/5
      A Victorian novel full of atmosphere and mystery that had me guessing until the very end!
    • 4/5
      I am embarrassed at how long it took me to start suspecting the twist at the end, but it was such a beautiful story!
    • 5/5
      This is a dark and spiritually disturbing novel. It's all in here: imprisonment, dehumanisation, the destruction of faith, a state run system of consentless BDSM, and over it all the black spectre of death. Reading it thrust me into a frightening state of mind where I found myself stalked by thoughts of the failures of my life and the lack of control I have over it. I'm not kidding, so don't say I didn't warn you, Folks. I would turn to the beginning of each new prison chapter with a real sense of dread and found myself hoping this was a horror novel, because if it's a horror novel then everything will be all right in the end.
    • 3/5
      A sad Gothic novel filled with a continuing feeling of dread.Margaret Prior is recovering from a suicide attempt. After the death of her father she arranges to attend a local prison a few days a week to visit the prisoners - to talk and comfort them. On her rounds she meets Selina Dawes, and the two strike up a friendship. Selina is a medium, imprisoned for a seance gone wrong. Unsure whether to believe Selina’s gifts are real, Margaret is drawn to the prison more and more, desperate to understand who and what Selina really is.This book is a hard one for me to describe. This is the first time I have ever read anything by Sarah Waters, and having read the synopsis for the book I was quite excited to read it. I love Gothic novels and this one, with the hint of supernatural just sounded fantastic. Alas I came away feeling somewhat disappointed.The novel is certainly a dreary one, and I often felt a little boring, crawling through pages of depressing monologue. I often found I had to put it down and read something a bit more entertaining and then return to it. On that notion I was planning to give this book only two stars, it was a little long winded for me.But then when I finally finished the book (for it took me a while) I had the strange feeling that I’d just finishing something incredible. It deals a lot with social conventions of the time on subjects such as suicide and lesbianism, both punishable extremely severely, and the idea that because Margaret is a lady, her suicide attempt is swept under the rug. It has much to say about the double standards between different classes in the Victorian period. It also deals a lot with the prison system and how prisoners were treated in that time, there are some intense, almost frightening chapters in which prisoners are taken to solitary confinement, and the way they are horrifically treated.The thing that stood out most for me was the mystery element. That I really enjoyed. The whole plot keeps you guessing, can Selina really contact spirits, or is a conjurer of cheap tricks? The whole story is a very sad and dismal love story. I also rather liked the switching of point of view for each chapter. Half the chapters follow Margaret as she goes to the prison, deals with her sisters marriage and her invasive mother, and the other half tell the story of Selina before she was imprisoned. I preferred Selina’s chapters myself as I found them more interesting, leaving little clues to the possibility of her being a medium or not.Affinity is a very subtle and moving novel. It is filled with dense, bleak imagery that really does conjure up a very intense atmosphere of despair. This book may not be for everyone, but if you’re looking for something outside of the box, this one might be just what you’re looking for.
    • 4/5
      3.5 starsIt is 1874 and Margaret Prior is visiting a women's prison to hear some of the stories of some of the prisoners. She becomes particularly interested in one prisoner, Selena Dawes, who is a medium and was imprisoned for murdering a woman who took her in, but Selena insists it was a spirit who caused the woman's death. The book alternated between Margaret in “present” day and Selena's perspective beginning two years earlier. I found the “present” day storyline much more interesting, though there were still parts I glossed over a bit. It's not fast-moving, but it's a good story and it did pick up at the end. I didn't think I was going to like the ending, but wow, I was in for a surprise! I do approve of the ending, after all.
    • 3/5
      Maybe even 2 stars. I got bored by this book by page 250 and had to force myself through the last 100 pages. Some lovely descriptive passages but too slow moving for my tastes -- still, if that was all I would have given it 3 or even 3 1/2 stars. However, I found the plot completely predictable and the characters unappealing. And why is this billed as a mystery? Romance, yes; ghost story, okay but mystery, no!
    • 4/5
      When Margaret Prior accepts to become a 'Lady Visitor' at Millbank Prison in London, she is far from suspecting what tangled skeins await her in the endless corridors of the dank and cold prison, with it's wing holding women prisoners who are there for crimes as diverse as attempted suicide, infanticide, arson, petty theft, and fraud. Recovering from an undefined illness brought on by the grief following the death of her father, she believes this will be a worthwhile occupation to fill her time away from home and her overbearing mother, and will bring much-needed relief to the women prisoners who are living in deplorable conditions in the jail, where the emphasis, typical of the times, is on punishment. Her presence gives the prisoners a rare opportunity in the day to speak to someone, for they are expected to be silent at all times otherwise, and it gives them a small break in their continual chores, as well as a chance for some empathy from a stranger rather than the harsh treatment they can expect from the prison matrons who seem to delight in taunting them continually. Margaret is only interested in listening to the women speak of their experiences and describe their crimes rather than giving pious sermons to the women, as other lady visitors tend to do, and she is taken by the matrons around the jail to see how it is run, which allows the reader to get a comprehensive view of how things stood for women prisoners in 1874. It is rather obvious that Waters did thorough research for the novel and the details are many and quite striking. She writes beautifully and sets the mood perfectly so that one is carried along fascinating scenery in expectation of events to come. To some readers these scenes might seem too prolonged, but I found the details fascinating and as I listened to the audio version beautifully narrated by Juanita McMahon, was all too happy to be carried along the story at a deliberately observant pace. When Margaret first sees Selina Dawes alone in her cell with her pale face turned to the sun, her attention is arrested. Selina is holding a violet, which she can't possibly have obtained from within the prison, so that its very presence there seems almost miraculous. Selina herself has a delicate and mysterious beauty, and soon Margaret visits her regularly and learns she is a spirit medium who is continually in contact with ghosts. Selina claims the ghosts bring her gifts, such as that violet Margaret saw her with. Furthermore, she says they can spirit her out of the jail anytime they wish to, but that they have a purpose for having sent her there, and soon it emerges that the purpose is for Margaret and Selina to have come together, for they are each other's Affinity. But this is no simple lesbian romance story. And if one is patient enough and can enjoy the journey, the novel becomes a suspenseful ride which is impossible to put down in the second half and promises a big reveal in the end.
    • 2/5
      Sarah Waters is one of my favourite authors, but I found this book very hard to finish. (I managed it, after three or four previous attempts.) There are some clever twists, but not the level of intricate detail Waters achieved with Fingersmith. There are hints at romance, but none of the passion or bawdiness of Tipping the Velvet. A sense of mood and atmosphere are established, yet not as effectively as in The Little Stranger. But the overarching problem, as a modern reader, is the difficulty of suspending disbelief when faced with 19th century relics such as spiritualism and séances. A disappointing novel, when set against Waters' high standards.
    • 5/5
      The first two thirds of Affinity reminded a great deal of The Snake Pit by Mary Jane Ward, a novel from the point of view of a woman in a sanitarium recovering from a nervous breakdown. But by the middle of second act, as Margaret Prior researches mysticism, the blandness of her life and the lives of the inmates begins to reveal pent up emtions. Under the guise of communion with the "spirits" Affinity spirals into a story filled with sexual tension, intrigue and madness. I was so caught up in Margaret's emotions that I completely missed Selena's devious playing of all the people in her life to ultimately win her freedom and prove in the process that she really did deserve her sentence in Millbank!
    • 3/5
      Plot: 3 stars
      Characters: 2 1/2 stars
      Style: 2 stars
      Pace: 2 stars

      Well, the ending was better than I'd expected it to be. That's about the only thing that saved this from a 2 star rating. I was bored through most of it. Partly, I'm not a fan of epistle/diary style stories. They lose a lot of tension, because no matter what happens, you know they'll live/be free to write the next diary entry. And other than about 2 moments, I had a hard time feeling the romance. It just felt flat for me. Ah well.
    • 5/5
      The last time I started this book, I couldn't get into it and ended up setting it aside for something else. Aparently this was a much better time for this book. The first 30 pages or so I was skeptical. After that I was sucked in to the point where I could barely wait to read more. The gothic tale of Margaret, the damaged spinster daughter, and Selina, the imprisoned spiritualist psychic, was so rich, detailed and complex and compelling. Waters writes beautifully, and I could visualize and, more importantly, feel every scene as it took place. There were many emotional twists and turns as Margaret visited the prison, interacted with her mother and became enamored with Selina. The class and gender constraints were so well-depicted that I could feel myself straining against them. It was, at times, hard to read of a bright, curious and different young woman who after her beloved father's death was written off and stifled by everyone around her. Add the stigma against lesbianism, and poor Margaret was destined to have bouts of suicidal madness. I'm certainly not a person who romaniticizes previous eras and longs for 'simpler times'. This book reminded me why. I've spent a little time thinking about the reviews that described this as slow-moving or overlong while I wish there had been at least another 100 pages. Recently I watched the TV show 'True Detective' with a family member. He found it frustrating and bloated while I loved it. We've been talking a lot about how this may be a product of my love of storytelling for its own sake while his enjoyment of fictional books and movies is largely plot-driven. I think that difference between readers/watchers may be a part of why there are such disparate experiences of Affinity. This is likely to be one of my favorite books of the year.
    • 3/5
      i felt like it could have been half the length and had a much greater impact. there was too much build-up, making the ending fall flat. not as good as fingersmith or tipping the velvet, but an okay read nonetheless.
    • 4/5
      Waters's style is strong and engaging; her characters come to life with every sentence, and her plot twists are not to be believed. Another brilliant piece from an author who is quickly climbing my list of favorites. To review this book in too much depth would be to rob you of the joy of reading it for yourself, and that is one you should certainly not be denied. A worthwhile read for anyone who enjoys period pieces and a bit of scandal.
    • 3/5
      An interesting story, but not exactly a page-turner for me. Like some other readers, I was a bit put off by its slow start. And like others, I did not see the ending coming. I think other's comment that Margaret is the real prisoner is very astute.I'm glad I persisted to the finish, but I'm not going to be eagerly searching for another of Sarah Water's books.
    • 4/5
      Affinity is memorable not only for the the Millbank women's prison, but also for the spiritualist subculture, excellent evil characters, and good/evil reversals of fortune. It is , to me, the least overtly erotic, and most psychological of a trilogy (Tipping The Velvet & Fingersmith) which have little in common except the historical period, and heroines who discover the joys of womanly companionship & intimacy.

      Whether the Millbank women's prison, or a Kent oyster house, or a London den of thieves, Sarah Waters paints the background and the people in such a way that the lovers' moments when they come are very vivid and real. Scene setting, innocent moments, then accumulations of moments, then avalanches of accumulated moments, and then denouements. These are books that are much more about love than about sex.

      Well done.
    • 4/5
      I enjoyed this story. I connected with the main character, Miss. Prior. I understand her 'obsession' with Selina and how badly she wants to believe her. I thought that the author giving us Selina's diary of how her life was before she was guilty of murder and sent to Millbank prison really twisted with the readers perception of what the reality really is.
      I hesitate to call this a mystery, as the facts are given but no real crime is being investigated during your reading except for investigating the characters, their desire, wants, needs and desperation.
      Not until the last page do you find out the whole truth. I found this riveting and exciting.
    • 4/5
      Waters writes in a language that captivates the imagination and submerges the mind into the depths of a sinking, giant, cold women's prison in Victorian England. It is hard to get through the first 70 pages or so, for it is a slow beginning, and you come to appreciate the mood set by the beginning later. The characters are very well-developed, but perhaps we have the best understanding of Margaret Prior's character and life. Her family life, the demands of "being a lady" in the Victorian era, her troublesome existence are presented in mesmerizing detail. After a while, we know Miss Prior well enough to know what she will do next. And that, in the end, is exactly the one clue one needs to figure out exactly what's going on.

      I started off with a bunch of theories, but about 150 pages before the ending, it became clear to me what must be going on, and I was right. Still, the unraveling (or tangling, depending on your point of view) of lives and stories is so-well done, that even if you are sure you know what's going on, you read and read and read to see how masterful Sarah Waters will tell it.

      Why not 5 stars, then? Well, I really really do not like these "lady" types. They are so pathetic, so easily "taken ill," and their whining, the "Oh, I am a rich lady, but I must marry, oh but what if I do not want to, oh and I hate being idle" just annoys me. I understand, yes, that simply because they were well-to-do did not mean they were free to do whatever they pleased and yes, in their own way, they were very restricted in what they could do, who they could marry, where they could go, but still, it makes me think that they lacked the courage, the self-esteem, the cunning to subvert the system to do some of the things they wanted to do. This, of course, sets a very stark contrast between the two narrators of the story, though they are both presented as ladies (one a real lady, the other a woman who is "so much like a lady.")
    • 5/5
      Sarah Waters excels herself in this dark and atmospheric tale of spiritualism, forbidden relationships and death. If that makes it sound like some creaky potboiler, don't be fooled, because this is one of the most gripping and authentic novels you are ever likely to read.

      Waters' fiction is always compelling, with an internal urgency and drive that is always about more than simply writing exciting stories that make you want to turn the pages. The characters and setting are so well realised, so realistically drawn and motivated, that I became sucked in, transfixed and compelled to reach the end. Nothing about this book disappoints and for my money it's even better than her other celebrated tour de force, Fingersmith.
      © Koplowitz 2003