The Fraud: A Novel

The Fraud: A Novel

The New York Times Bestseller One Of The New York Times 10 Best Books Of The Year One Of Npr'S Best Books Of The Year Named A Best Book Of The Year By Publishers Weekly[A] Brilliant New Entry In SmithS Catalog . . . The Fraud Is Not A Change For Smith, But A Demonstration Of How Expansive Her Talents Are. -Los Angeles Timesfrom Acclaimed And Bestselling Novelist Zadie Smith, A Kaleidoscopic Work Of Historical Fiction Set Against The Legal Trial That Divided Victorian England, About Who Gets To Tell Their Story-And Who Gets To Be Believedit Is 1873. Mrs. Eliza Touchet Is The Scottish Housekeeper-And Cousin By Marriage-Of A Once-Famous Novelist, Now In Decline, William Ainsworth, With Whom She Has Lived For Thirty Years.Mrs. Touchet Is A Woman Of Many Interests: Literature, Justice, Abolitionism, Class, Her Cousin, His Wives, This Life And The Next. But She Is Also Sceptical. She Suspects Her Cousin Of Having No Talent; His Successful Friend, Mr. Charles Dickens, Of Being A Bully And A Moralist; And England Of Being A Land Of Facades, In Which Nothing Is Quite What It Seems.Andrew Bogle, Meanwhile, Grew Up Enslaved On The Hope Plantation, Jamaica. He Knows Every Lump Of Sugar Comes At A Human Cost. That The Rich Deceive The Poor. And That People Are More Easily Manipulated Than They Realize. When Bogle Finds Himself In London, Star Witness In A Celebrated Case Of Imposture, He Knows His Future Depends On Telling The Right Story.The Tichborne Trial-Wherein A Lower-Class Butcher From Australia Claimed He Was In Fact The Rightful Heir Of A Sizable Estate And Title-Captivates Mrs. Touchet And All Of England. Is Sir Roger Tichborne Really Who He Says He Is? Or Is He A Fraud? Mrs. Touchet Is A Woman Of The World. Mr. Bogle Is No Fool. But In A World Of Hypocrisy And Self-Deception, Deciding What Is Real Proves A Complicated Task. . . .Based On Real Historical Events, The Fraud Is A Dazzling Novel About Truth And Fiction, Jamaica And Britain, Fraudulence And Authenticity And The Mystery Of Other People.