Description

‘Profound, shattering and utterly immersive’ Frances Wilson

‘Blurring the edges of biography and autobiography, Bostridge displays a profound empathy for Adele, even at her most baffing and elusive’ Literary Review

In this unforgettably shattering memoir, Mark Bostridge finds himself haunted by the daughter of Victor Hugo. More than a century after her mysterious disappearance, he pursues Adele on her doomed and reckless journey of unrequited love.

But as he follows Adele’s footsteps around the world, from Normandy to the Caribbean, he is forced to confront all the ways in which her fate parallels his own.

A TLS BOOK OF THE YEAR
FIVES STARS DAILY TELEGRAPH

‘A compelling experiment in biography-cum-memoir’ TLS

‘An unforgettable journey’ Ferdinand Mount

‘Mark Bostridge’s innovative biography… of haunting beauty and stylistic grace’ Daily Telegraph

‘Utterly immersive’ The Oldie

Publisher Review

It’s the saddest story ever told – and told so beautifully that you wish it would never end. The author’s search for the truth about Victor Hugo’s daughter carries him across oceans and into the darkest corners of his own past. It’s an unforgettable journey. * Ferdinand Mount, author of Kiss Myself Goodbye * A haunting and utterly engrossing book – not just a brilliant study of Adele Hugo’s obsessive and unrequited love, but full of revelations about the biographer himself, as he pursues the truth about her life, and finds in the process many parallel truths about his own. * Claire Harman, author of Charlotte Bronte: A Fiery Heart * Profound, shattering, and utterly immersive. * Frances Wilson, author of Burning Man: The Ascent of DH Lawrence * This excavation of a buried woman – covered by the sands of time, hearsay, rumours that attach to celebrity, and her own misinformation – sifts the very practice of biography. As a strange story of an obsession comes to light, Bostridge questions our reliance on documentation and challenges the illusion of objectivity with the biographer’s own obsessiveness as he finds touching parallels in his own life that bring him closer to elusive truth. * Lyndall Gordon, author of The Hyacinth Girl: T. S. Eliot’s Hidden Muse *