The Clockmaker's Daughter
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4.5 • 30 Ratings
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
Kate Morton's highly acclaimed novels have sold over 11 million copies worldwide and are number one bestsellers around the world.
'. . . in her most ambitious work yet . . . Morton proves once again that history is not a straight line but an intricate, infinite web.' - Booklist
'. . .(a) meditative read, with lush settings, meticulous period details, and slowly unfurling enigmas will enjoy this book.' - Kirkus
'Beautifully written. Unforgettable' - Australian Women's Weekly
'Morton explores the tangled history of people and place in her outstanding, bittersweet sixth novel.' -_US Publisher's Weekly
'The Clockmaker's Daughter_is an ambitious, complex, compelling historical mystery with a fabulous cast of characters. This is Kate Morton at her very best.' - Kristin Hannah, bestselling author of_The Nightingale
'A truly hypnotic tale that is bound to please both fans and newcomers, The Clockmaker's Daughter is another wonderful read from one of Australia's most beloved authors.' - Booktopia
In the summer of 1862, a group of young artists, led by the passionate and talented Edward Radcliffe, descends upon Birchwood Manor on the banks of the Upper Thames. Their plan: to spend a secluded summer month in a haze of inspiration and creativity. But by the time their stay is over, one woman has been shot dead while another has disappeared, a priceless heirloom is missing, and Edward Radcliffe's life is in ruins.
Over one hundred and fifty years later, Elodie Winslow, a young archivist in London, uncovers two seemingly unrelated items: a sepia photograph of a woman in Victorian clothing, and an artist's sketchbook containing the drawing of a twin-gabled house on the bend of a river.
Birchwood Manor feels strangely familiar to Elodie, sparking memories of a favourite story from her childhood; but who is the beautiful woman in the photograph, and will she ever give up her secrets?
Told by multiple voices across time, The Clockmaker's Daughter is a story of murder, mystery and thievery, of art, love and loss.
- #1 Bestseller Australia -
- New York Times Bestseller -
- Sunday Times Bestseller -
- #1 Bestseller Canada -
- Indie Next Pick Oct, 2018 -
- Library Reads Selection Oct, 2018 -
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
In Kate Morton’s time-jumping ghost story, the mysterious death of a beautiful young woman in the 1860s reverberates into the 21st century. Shifting seamlessly between a group of young bohemian artists during Victorian times and a present-day London archivist determined to unravel their fate, the author of The Lake House creates a moving story of ambition and loss. Morton makes multiple nods to Dickens throughout The Clockmaker’s Daughter, and her zippy plot machinations and colourful side characters would make her inspiration proud.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Morton (The Lake House) explores the tangled history of people and place in her outstanding, bittersweet sixth novel. In contemporary London, Elodie, a young archivist, encounters among her employer's collection a satchel, a photographic portrait, and a sketch of a country house. The sketch, in particular, arouses Elodie's professional curiosity and her memories, since it bears close resemblance to a house figuring heavily in the magical stories her late mother once told her. The trail of Elodie's research spurred by her discovery that the sketch depicts an actual place is woven together with tales of the house's various denizens between 1862 and the present, as well as with the voice of a spirit who haunts its walls. This specter who remains nameless for most of the novel is the clock maker's daughter of the title, abandoned as a young girl, trained as a pickpocket, and eventually chosen as an artist's muse, but possessing an artist's eye of her own. The novel's central mystery focuses on the circumstances of her abrupt disappearance in the 19th century, entangled with the abduction of a priceless jewel, the murder of the artist's fianc e, and the artist's personal and professional collapse. At the novel's emotional core, however, is the intersection of lives across decades, united, as the ethereal narrator suggests, by a shared experience of "loss that ties them together." In addition to love not only romantic love but also love between parents and siblings and loss, the stories, brilliantly told by Morton, offer musings on art, betrayal, and the ways in which real lives and real places can evolve over time into the stuff of legends.
