A stunning literary ghost-story of entanglement and obsession; ambition and betrayal - set in present-day Cambridge, but entangled with the 17th century
A stunning literary ghost-story of entanglement and obsession; ambition and betrayal - set in present-day Cambridge, but entangled with the 17th century
When Elizabeth, a reclusive historian, is found drowned in a tributary of the River Cam, she is clutching a glass prism and has left behind her unfinished magnum opus, a book on Isaac Newtown's alchemy.
Her son, Cameron, turns to Lydia Brooke, a young writer and friend of Elizabeth's and asks her to complete the last chapter of the book.Lydia hesitantly agrees and moves into Elizabeth's strange house, where she soon finds herself entangled, not only with Cameron, but also with a four-hundred-year-old murder mystery, a network of seventeenth-century alchemists and a ghostly figure intent on disrupting her work.Short-listed for Authors Club Best First Novel 2008 (UK) Long-listed for IMPAC Dublin Literary Award 2009 (UK)
“A creepy, unputdownable book - GOOD BOOK GUIDE”
Rebecca Stott is a writer and broadcaster. She writes both fiction and non-fiction, teaches English literature and is affiliated with the Cambridge History of Science Department. Her work in radio writing, fiction and non-fiction, weaves together history, literature and the history of science. She is the author of the non-fiction book Darwin and the Barnacle.
When Elizabeth, a reclusive historian, is found drowned in a tributary of the River Cam, she is clutching a glass prism and has left behind her unfinished magnum opus, a book on Isaac Newtown's alchemy.Her son, Cameron, turns to Lydia Brooke, a young writer and friend of Elizabeth's and asks her to complete the last chapter of the book.Lydia hesitantly agrees and moves into Elizabeth's strange house, where she soon finds herself entangled, not only with Cameron, but also with a four-hundred-year-old murder mystery, a network of seventeenth-century alchemists and a ghostly figure intent on disrupting her work.
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