The Paying Guests
shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction
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3.9 • 140 Ratings
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- £4.99
Publisher Description
'A page-turning melodrama and a fascinating portrait of London on the verge of great change' Guardian
It is 1922, and in a hushed south London villa life is about to be transformed, as genteel widow Mrs Wray and her discontented daughter Frances are obliged to take in lodgers. Lilian and Leonard Barber, a modern young couple of the 'clerk class', bring with them gramophone music, colour, fun - and dangerous desires. The most ordinary of lives, it seems, can explode into passion and drama... A love story that is also a crime story, this is vintage Sarah Waters.
'Another wild ride of a novel... magnetic storytelling' Tracy Chevalier, Observer
'You will be hooked within a page' Charlotte Mendelson, Financial Times
'Sumptuous... the writing is impeccable. A joy in every respect' New Statesman
'An unsurpassed fictional recorder of vanished eras and hidden lives' Sunday Times
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
The bestselling Welsh author of The Night Watch and Fingersmith returns with an evocative novel set in ’20s London. In the aftermath of World War I, an eccentric young woman named Frances and her grieving mother are forced to take in lodgers to make ends meet. Those paying guests—vivacious Lilian Barber and her husband Len—turn Frances’ world upside down, ushering in an unexpected friendship and, ultimately, profound heartbreak.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
With two brothers killed in WWI and a debt-ridden father who followed them to the grave soon afterward, 27-year-old spinster Frances Wray knows that she and her mother must take in lodgers (euphemistically described as "paying guests") to maintain their large house in a genteel section of London. In the postwar social landscape of England in 1922, the rise of a new middle class and the dwindling of the old servant class are disrupting longtime patterns of life. The disruptions occasioned by the advent of their tenants, the lower-class couple Leonard and Lilian Barber, are minor at first. But as Frances observes the tensions in the Barbers' marriage and develops a sexual attraction for the beautiful Lily, who soon reciprocates her love, a fraught and dangerous situation develops. Lost in the passion of mutual ardor, Frances and Lily scheme to create a life together. An accidental murder they commit derails their plans and transforms the novel, already an absorbing character study, into an expertly paced and gripping psychological narrative. When an innocent man is arrested for the women's crime, they face a terrible moral crisis, marked by guilt, shame, and fear. Readers of Waters's previous novels know that she brings historical eras to life with consummate skill, rendering authentic details into layered portraits of particular times and places. Waters's restrained, beautiful depiction of lesbian love furnishes the story with emotional depth, as does the suspense that develops during the tautly written murder investigation and ensuing trial. When Frances and Lily confront their radically altered existence, the narrative culminates in a breathtaking denouement. British writer Waters (The Little Stranger) deserves a large audience.
Customer Reviews
Ok
No twists and a meh ending.
A little disappointing
I love Sarah Waters' style of writing. She has a beautiful turn of phrase that leaves me envious! And her stories are always good ones, with a twist I don't expect.
The level of historical detail is amazing. I can feel myself learning about another time, bygone era. The day to day routines if the women, their fashions, their food, the language of the time. Waters' ability to create a world is exceptional.
That said, I find her story telling very slow and I think one third to one quarter of the book could have been edited out. I often felt I was going round in circles, had heard the same sentiment once or twice already and that caused me to lose interest. As a result my enjoyment of the book was drastically reduced and I more or less skipped the last chapter.
For that reason this book gets only 3 stars.
Another good'n
Always enjoy her great writing. A story with much tension and feeling.