Book of the Year 2023 according to New York Times, New Yorker, Guardian, Economist, Observer, The Spectator, Financial Times, Vogue, The Times, The Oldie, i Paper, The Standard, Washington Post, Independent, Daily ExpressSHORTLISTED FOR WATERSTONES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023SHORTLISTED FOR THE WRITERS PRIZE FOR FICTION 2024ONE OF SARAH JESSICA PARKERS BEST BOOKS OF 2023LONGLISTED FOR THE WALTER SCOTT PRIZE FOR HISTORICAL FICTION 2024A writer at the peak of her powers The TelegraphTruth and fiction. Jamaica and Britain. Who gets to tell their story?In her first historical novel, Zadie Smith transports the reader to a Victorian England transfixed by the reallife trial of the Tichborne Claimant, in which a cockney butcher, recently returned from Australia, lays claim to the Tichborne baronetcy, with his former slave Andrew Bogle as star witness. Watching the proceedings, and with her own story to tell, is Eliza Touchet cousin, housekeeper and perhaps more to failing novelist William Harrison Ainsworth.From literary London to the Jamaicas sugarcane plantations, Zadie Smith weaves an enthralling story linking the rich and the poor, the free and the enslaved, and the comic and the tragic.Its difficult to give any idea of how extraordinary this book is. One of the great historical novels, certainly. But has any historical novel ever combined such brilliantly researched and detailed history with such intensely imagined fiction? Michael FraynAs always it is a pleasure to be in Zadie...

Binding: Paperback;400 pages; Publisher: TBS-Penguin Random House Wholesale; Classification: FV; Weight: 436 g; Dimensions: 130 x 199 x 32

Something not quite right? You have 28 days from the day you receive it, to send something back.

Please note, we cannot offer refunds on fashion face masks, cosmetics, pierced jewellery, adult toys, and swimwear or lingerie if the hygiene seal is not in place or has been broken.

Items of footwear and/or clothing must be unworn and unwashed with the original labels attached. Also, footwear must be tried on indoors. Items of homeware including bedlinen, mattresses, and toppers, and pillows must be unused and in their original unopened packaging. This does not affect your statutory rights.

Click here to view our full Returns Policy.