Booth

Fowler, Karen Joy

£18.99

In 1822, a secret family moves into a secret cabin some 30 miles northeast of Baltimore, to farm, to hide, and to bear 10 children over the course of the next 16 years. Junius Booth – breadwinner, celebrated Shakespearean actor, and master of the house in more ways than one – is at once a mesmerizing talent and a man of terrifying instability. One by one the children arrive, as year by year, the country draws frighteningly closer to the boiling point of secession and civil war.As the tenor of the world shifts, the Booths emerge from their hidden lives to cement their place as one of the country’s leading theatrical families. But behind the curtains of the many stages they have graced, multiple scandals, family triumphs, and crimical disasters begin to take their toll, and the solemn siblings of John Wilkes Booth are left to reckon with the truth behind the destructively specious promise of an early prophecy.

Available on backorder

Publish Date: 17/03/2022

Description

LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2022A SUNDAY TIMES HISTORICAL NOVEL OF THE YEAR 2022A TELEGRAPH BEST FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR 2022A WATERSTONES BEST HISTORICAL NOVEL OF THE YEAR 2022AN EVENING STADARD MUST-READ NOVEL OF THE YEAR 2022ONE OF NICOLA STURGEON’S BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2022’Accomplished, immersive and profoundly satisfying’ Cathy Rentzenbrink’Effortlessly resonant … breathes rich imaginative colour in her characters’ Daily TelegraphFrom the million-copy bestselling author of We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves comes an epic novel about the infamous, ill-fated Booth family. SIX BROTHERS AND SISTERS. ONE INJUSTICE THAT WILL SHATTER THEIR BOND FOREVER.Junius is the patriarch, a celebrated Shakespearean actor who fled bigamy charges in England, both a mesmerising talent and a man of terrifying instability. As his children grow up in a remote farmstead in 1830s rural Baltimore, the country draws ever closer to the boiling point of secession and civil war. Of the six Booth siblings who survive to adulthood, each has their own dreams they must fight to realise – but it is Johnny who makes the terrible decision that will change the course of history – the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.Booth is a riveting novel focused on the very things that bind, and break, a family.’In its stretch and imaginative depth, Booth has an utterly seductive authority’ Guardian’Karen Joy Fowler’s novels are wildly inventive and deservedly popular’ Daily Mail’Booth is a triumph!’ Ruth Ozeki’Captures with enthralling vividness a country caught in the grip of fanatical populism, ripped apart by irreconcilable political differences and boiling with fury and rage … An unalloyed triumph’ Literary Review’Brilliantly recounts the story of the American theatrical dynasty that produced Lincoln’s assassin’ Sunday Times Book of the Month’Her finest, most beautiful novel to date’ Neel Mukherjee

Additional information

Weight 700 g
Dimensions 238 × 162 × 44 mm
Author

Publisher

Imprint

Cover

Hardback

Pages

470

Language

English

Edition

Hardback original

Dewey

813.6 (edition:23)

Readership

General – Trade / Code: K