The Fraud by Zadie Smith (2023), published by Penguin
What's it about? Based on real historical events, The Fraud is set in 1873 around The 'Tichborne Trial’ which captivated Victorian England and became a flashpoint for social tensions. It concerned claims by a man 'the Claimant’ to be the long lost heir to the Tichborne estate. Widowed Scottish housekeeper Mrs Eliza Touchet is captivated by proceedings wondering if his claims are genuine or if he is an imposter? Andrew Bogle meanwhile finds himself the star witness, his future depending on telling the right story.
Why should you read it? The Fraud is a dazzling novel about a world of hypocrisy, self-deception and manipulation. Covering justice, abolitionism and class, it concerns the complications of unearthing the truth. Smith has enraptured readers since her 2000 debut novel White Teeth. This is her first foray into historical fiction, and it carries echoes of the populism of now.
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What the critics say: …a rendering of London culture in the 19th century, a commentary on the recently abolished British colonial slave trade, a dramatization of a years-long court case, a Victorian BDSM queer romance. Smith is testing just how much the form can convey about the machinations of empire, gender, creativity, self-determination, and power—and how much the form can convey about itself. The weight of fictional ambition flattens her characters. The book seems, in moments, like a contest between Smith the novelist and Smith the critic, and the critic proves stronger." - Jordan Kisner, The Atlantic.
Remind you of anyone? The Claimant was a "man with no center" who "moved as the wind moved," a "fun-loving, beer-swilling, aristocratic man of the people."
For readers of… The Confessions of Frannie Langton, Sara Collins; Bleak House, Charles Dickens; Girl, Woman, Other, Bernardine Evaristo.
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