Strange Music
Published on 16. February 2023
224 pages
978-1-5299-1409-2 (ISBN)
Description
In Laura Fish's ambitious and captivating novel, three very different women struggle for freedom. While Elizabeth Barrett Browning is confined to bed, chafing against the restriction of her doctors and writing poetry and fretful letters, at her family's Jamaican estate Kaydia, the Creole housekeeper, tries to protect her daughter from their predatory master; and a recently freed black slave, Sheba, mourns the loss of her lover.
As Elizabeth, a passionate abolitionist, struggles to come to terms with the source of her wealth and privilege both Sheba and Kydia fight to escape a tragic past which seems ever-present. The resulting novel is an extraordinary evocation of the dark side of the nineteenth-century that is both horrifying and ultimately redeeming.
As Elizabeth, a passionate abolitionist, struggles to come to terms with the source of her wealth and privilege both Sheba and Kydia fight to escape a tragic past which seems ever-present. The resulting novel is an extraordinary evocation of the dark side of the nineteenth-century that is both horrifying and ultimately redeeming.
Reviews / Votes
A gifted writer, and her manipulation of language is her forte - brilliant, sensuous and shocking * Sunday Times * Fish nimbly draws parallels between [her characters'] lives, packing a powerful emotional punch in the process * Tatler * A powerful expression of post-colonial guilt * Guardian * A provocative contribution to revisionist (and feminist) post-colonial fiction * Times Literary Supplement * Shaw is an accomplished storyteller, whose beautiful prose delivers you right into the heart of the plantation * Time Out *More details
Edition
New edition
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Vintage Publishing
Edition type
New edition
File size
0,69 MB
ISBN-13
978-1-5299-1409-2 (9781529914092)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
01/2023
Vintage
€18.40
Shipment within 3-4 weeks
Person
Laura Fish was born in London in 1964, of Caribbean parents. She has lived in Southern Africa and Australia, and has held posts as a Creative Writing tutor at various universities including the University of East Anglia, where she recently completed a PhD in Creative and Critical Writing. She holds the RCUK Academic Fellowship in Creative Writing at Newcastle University. Her first novel, Flight of Black Swans, was published in 1995.
