The Palace of Curiosities

(Paperback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

A luminous and bewitching debut novel that is perfect for fans of Angela Carter. Set in Victorian London, it follows the fortunes of Eve, the Lion-Faced Girl and Abel, the Flayed Man. A magical realism delight.
Before Eve is born, her mother goes to the circus. She buys a penny twist of coloured sugar and settles down to watch the heart-stopping main attraction: a lion, billed as a monster from the savage heart of Africa, forged in the heat of a merciless sun. Mama swears she hears the lion sigh, just before it leapsand when Eve is born, the story goes, she didnt cry she meowed and licked her paws.

When Abel is pulled from the stinking Thames, the mudlarks are sure he is long dead. As they search his pockets to divvy up the treasure, his eyes crack open and he coughs up a stream of black water. But how has he survived a week in that thick stew of human waste

Cast out by Victorian society, Eve and Abel find succour from an unlikely source. They will become The Lion Faced Girl and The Flayed Man, star performers in Professor Josiah Arroners Palace of Curiosities. And there begins a journey that will entwine their fates forever.

Reviews

Garlands lush prose is always a pleasure GUARDIAN

An alternately brutal and beautiful story about love and belonging in a vividly conveyed underworld, rich in carny phantasmagoria and lyrical romance METRO

Bewitching GOOD HOUSEKEEPING

A jewel-box of a novel Garland is a real literary talent: definitely an author to watch Sarah Waters

Reminds me of Angela Carter Jenni Murray

Author Bio

Born in London to a runaway teenager, Rosie has always been a cuckoo in the nest. She is an eclectic writer and performer, ranging from singing in Goth band The March Violets through touring with the Subversive Stitch exhibition in the 90s, to her current incarnation as Rosie Lugosi the Vampire Queen, cabaret chanteuse, incomparable compere and electrifying poet. She has published five solo collections of poetry and her award-winning short stories, poems and essays have been widely anthologized. She is is the author of Vixen and her debut novel, The Palace of Curiosities won Book of the Year in the Co-op Respect Awards 2013 and was longlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize. Her next novel is The Night Brother and will be published in 2017.