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The Snail Jacket
1825 and 1873, Isle of Wight, England; two brothels grow, shell-like, around the girls they
The unfathomable Eleanor, a French descendant living alone with her sister and her son.
The down-beaten Peg, a pregnant runaway from a family of wastrels.
Both conceal the secrets which have lain dormant beneath the skin of generations, but when undertaker James partners showman Ern, and the search is on for Peg’s return, will Peg ever truly be free of the past – will any of them?
Half a century apart the character's stories traverse, uncovering a grimy, slimy trail of Victorian secrets which inevitably lead them to each-other.
This is a macabre, psychological novel concerning cruelty, power and obsession. It is about home, and the eternal bind of origin and circumstance.
‘Word got out and the men came in their droves, creatures falling to their deaths from the brink, the girls waiting, eaten away on the inside like larvae infected with some terrible spore, rooted to the house, impaled and then laced from within by a shell they themselves had grown about them. It was a drug, and they became women who had no say in the matter apart from yes.’
The unfathomable Eleanor, a French descendant living alone with her sister and her son.
The down-beaten Peg, a pregnant runaway from a family of wastrels.
Both conceal the secrets which have lain dormant beneath the skin of generations, but when undertaker James partners showman Ern, and the search is on for Peg’s return, will Peg ever truly be free of the past – will any of them?
Half a century apart the character's stories traverse, uncovering a grimy, slimy trail of Victorian secrets which inevitably lead them to each-other.
This is a macabre, psychological novel concerning cruelty, power and obsession. It is about home, and the eternal bind of origin and circumstance.
‘Word got out and the men came in their droves, creatures falling to their deaths from the brink, the girls waiting, eaten away on the inside like larvae infected with some terrible spore, rooted to the house, impaled and then laced from within by a shell they themselves had grown about them. It was a drug, and they became women who had no say in the matter apart from yes.’
569 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 10, 2016
1 person want to read
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