Thematically rich, stylistically impressive, absolutely unforgettable.Ī dystopic thriller joins the crowded shelves but doesn't distinguish itself. In lesser hands, this might be crowded instead, Hardinge creates a fierce, unlikable heroine navigating a rapidly changing world and does it all with consummate skill and pitch-perfect prose, drawing readers into Faith’s world and onto her side and ultimately saying quite a lot about the world. The tree exerts a malevolent force, but it also unleashes the true Faith as she navigates complex social and political machinations, with only the reluctant aid of the son of the local clergyman. She turns to a secret plant her father has nurtured, which feeds off lies propagated in the world and delivers to the liar a truth-bearing hallucinogenic fruit. When he dies shortly after their arrival, Faith-whose plain, obedient exterior has always hidden a brilliant mind and daring spirit-is the only one who suspects murder. Sunderly, famed natural scientist, abruptly moves his family from England to a small island, his 14-year-old daughter is surprised and then heartbroken as she realizes they are fleeing scandal her remote but beloved father faked the fossil discovery that assured his fame. Mystery, magic, religion, and feminism swirl together in Hardinge’s latest heady concoction, set amid the scientific ferment following the publication of The Origin of Species.
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