The Fraud

Locations
Call Number: Fiction / Smith, Zadie, Adult Book / Fiction / Historical / Smith, Zadie
On Shelf At: Downtown Library, Malletts Creek Branch, Traverwood Branch, Westgate Branch

"It 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.""-- Provided by publisher.

REVIEWS & SUMMARIES

COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Fascinating submitted by tuttlium on July 8, 2024, 8:03pm In my opinion, this is Zadie Smith's best novel in a long time.

Thought Provoking Historical Fiction submitted by magg2185 on August 16, 2024, 9:43am Zadie Smith's first time writing historical fiction. Really enjoyed this one.

Zadie Smith is still better than most submitted by Beth Wiggert on February 3, 2025, 10:42am This is not my favorite Zadie Smith novel, but it is wonderful. She did a good job weaving real and fictional characters together. Poignant in many way

Zadie Smith is still better than most submitted by Beth Wiggert on February 3, 2025, 10:43am This is not my favorite Zadie Smith novel, but it is wonderful. She did a good job weaving real and fictional characters together. Poignant in many ways (love, the slave trade, sexuality) . Worth the read