Slammerkin

by Emma Donoghue

Before Room made her an internationally bestselling novelist, Emma Donoghue was principally known for two elegantly-crafted and pungently realised historical novels - of which Slammerkin stands out as an astonishing example of the genre. A finalist for the 2001 Irish Literature Prize for fiction, Slammerkin has now been republished to capitalise on the interest generated by Room.

Set in the eighteen century, partly in London and partly in Wales, Slammerkin is the story of Mary Saunders - a clothes-obsessed young woman, whose desire for fine dresses leads her into prostitution at the age of thirteen. It is a life of risk and gamble, one that turns deadly and forces Mary to flee the capital. Leaving her old life behind, she reinvents herself as a maid in a Monmouthshire household. But, as she soon discovers, the past has a habit of coming back to haunt you.

This is a deft, alluring and convincingly written novel, one that really gets under the skin of its characters and the time in which they live. The skills that Donoghue showcased in Room - her empathy, her ability to weave a persuasive narrative, her flashes of humour - are all present here, and though the subject matter could not be any more different, those that admired Room will find much to enjoy here.

Publisher: Virago

Emma Donoghue

Born in 1969, Emma Donoghue is an Irish writer who lives in Canada. Her fiction includes the bestselling novel Slammerkin and her novels have been translated into thirty-nine languages. Room, her seventh novel, was shortlisted for the 2010 Man Booker Prize, won the Irish Novel of the Year and the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize and most recently won in the Caribbean and Canada Best Book category of the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. Donoghue has also been shortlisted for the Galaxy International Author of the Year and is winner of the TV Book Club. She lives in London, Ontario with Chris Roulston and their two children.