
The Transformation
Catherine Chidgey(Author)
Picador (Publisher)
Published on 3. November 2006
Book
Paperback/Softback
320 pages
978-0-330-43323-5 (ISBN)
Description
Tampa, Florida, 1898: a frontier where the old world meets the new. Dominating the town is the new Tampa Bay Hotel, a fairy-tale castle by the water's edge, and a winter magnet for the rich and famous. But the hotel has one permanent resident, the enigmatic and exotic Monsieur Goulet III, amateur phrenologist and wig-maker to anyone with pockets deep enough.
As the winter of 1898 nears its end, Goulet becomes entranced by the spectacular silver-blonde hair of a beautiful young widow, Marion Unger, and determines that the transformation it inspires him to create will be his masterpiece. But the raw material he needs is hard to come by, and so he is driven to increasingly extreme efforts. As the fates of widow and wigmakerbecome ever more tightly entwined, Goulet's true nature begins to show itself, until it becomes clear that he will allow nothing to impede the progress of his ultimate transformation.
'Set in Tampa, Florida, in 1898, Chidgey evokes a world that is decadent, louche, colourful and verging on the gothic; a highly original read, and as beautiful as it is terrifying, this really is a novel to get lost in' Sunday Express
'Chidgey is a gifted writer, and her confident, commanding prose and vivid atmospherics hold the attention' Guardian
As the winter of 1898 nears its end, Goulet becomes entranced by the spectacular silver-blonde hair of a beautiful young widow, Marion Unger, and determines that the transformation it inspires him to create will be his masterpiece. But the raw material he needs is hard to come by, and so he is driven to increasingly extreme efforts. As the fates of widow and wigmakerbecome ever more tightly entwined, Goulet's true nature begins to show itself, until it becomes clear that he will allow nothing to impede the progress of his ultimate transformation.
'Set in Tampa, Florida, in 1898, Chidgey evokes a world that is decadent, louche, colourful and verging on the gothic; a highly original read, and as beautiful as it is terrifying, this really is a novel to get lost in' Sunday Express
'Chidgey is a gifted writer, and her confident, commanding prose and vivid atmospherics hold the attention' Guardian
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Pan Macmillan
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 197 mm
Width: 130 mm
Thickness: 22 mm
Weight
216 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-330-43323-5 (9780330433235)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Person
Catherine Chidgey was born in New Zealand in 1970. She is the author of two previous novels, In a Fishbone Church, for which she received the Betty Trask Award, and Golden Deeds. In 2003 she was judged the best New Zealand novelist under forty in a Listener critics' poll. Catherine Chidgey now lives in Dunedin.