The Paying Guests
shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction
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3.9 • 144 Ratings
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- £2.99
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.
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.