Lily

Lily, in addition to its pellucid prose, is shamelessly gripping – Jake Kerridge * Daily Telegraph *
Tremain’s latest novel more than lives up to its atmospheric, riveting beginning… It’s consummate storytelling, and finds room for redemption as well as revenge – Hephzibah Anderson * Mail on Sunday *
Another memorable and engrossing read from Tremain, which brings Victorian London, and especially courageous Lily, to life on the page – Joanne Finney * Good Housekeeping *
A heartbreaking story set in Victorian England from the pitch-perfect pen of Rose Tremain – Antonia Senior * The Times, Books of the Year *
Tremain’s gift is to create characters whose experiences span every walk of life, but who are grounded in their author’s understanding of the world * Harper’s Bazaar *
Enthralling… Tremain evokes Victorian London with visceral intensity in a gripping and deeply humane novel exploring themes of rejection, poverty, guilt and redemption – Hannah Beckerman * Observer *
It’s more than gratifying to open [Tremain’s] new novel, Lily, and immediately see that she is still writing at full throttle… This is the literary equivalent of all your favourite Christmas telly programmes rolled into one… Lily’s story is a winter’s tale: a cosy pageturner that will whisk you away from the 21st century while engaging and sharpening your mind. – Melissa Katsoulis * The Times *
No writer can inhabit the skin of a historical period and bring it so pulsatingly alive as Rose Tremain. No one can break your heart quite like this. In this compassionate, generous, soaringly beautiful book, Tremain is at the top of her game. Read and be transported – Neel Mukherjee
Lily is an ingenious blend of historical novel, moral fable and fairy story. Tremain, a pre-eminent historical novelist, vividly evokes the disparate social worlds of Victorian London… Lily is a tale not just of revenge but of redemption, which carries an intense emotional charge. Tremain again displays her supreme ability to create characters who are at once totally true to the period and instantly identifiable to the modern reader * Financial Times *
Lily is the perfect heroine, courageous and bold – Nina Pottell * Prima *

Rose Tremain’s novels and short stories have been published in thirty countries and have won many awards, including the Orange Prize (The Road Home), the Dylan Thomas Award (The Colonel’s Daughter and Other Stories), the Whitbread Novel of the Year (Music & Silence), the James Tait Black Memorial Prize (Sacred Country) and the South Bank Sky Arts Award (The Gustav Sonata). Her most recent novel is Islands of Mercy. Rose Tremain was made a CBE in 2007 and a Dame in 2020. She lives in Norfolk and London with the biographer, Richard Holmes.

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