Description

The unputdownable historical novel by the acclaimed and bestselling author of WAKE and EXPECTATION: a devastating story of love and madness at the brink of the Great War.

‘Absolutely heart-breaking. One of the best books I’ve ever read’ DINAH JEFFERIES, author of The Tea-Planter’s Wife

‘Compelling, elegant, insightful’ OBSERVER

1911: Inside an asylum at the edge of the Yorkshire moors, where men and women are kept apart by high walls and barred windows, there is a ballroom vast and beautiful. For one bright evening every week they come together and dance. When John and Ella meet it is a dance that will change two lives forever.

Set over the heatwave summer of 1911, the end of the Edwardian era, THE BALLROOM tells a rivetting tale of dangerous obsession, of madness and sanity, and of who gets to decide which is which. It is a love story like no other.

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Praise for Anna Hope’s The Ballroom:

‘Beautifully wrought, tender, heartbreaking’ Sunday Express 5/5

‘Moving, fascinating’ Times

‘A tender and absorbing love story’ Daily Mail

‘Unsentimental and affecting’ Sunday Times

‘Exquisitely good’ Metro

‘Absolutely fantastic . . . I’m in real awe of her writing’ ELIZABETH MACNEAL, author of The Doll Factory
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Publisher Review

"Absolutely heart-breaking. One of the best books I've ever read" * Dinah Jefferies, author of THE TEA-PLANTER'S WIFE * "A British version of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Moving. Fascinating" * Times * "An unsentimental and affecting story" * Sunday Times * "Compelling, elegant and insightful." * Observer * "In this deeply moving book, Hope reminds us that behind everyone's facade lies something waiting to be rent free" * Irish Times * "An original, brilliant, evocative novel" * Chris Cleave * "A heartbreaking story of how love can flourish in the darkest of times" * Cathy Rentzenbrink, The Bookseller * "Part social commentary, part mystery and part dangerous liaison, this poignant story casts an unflinching gaze at the historic treatment of mental health disorders." * Financial Times * "Such a magnificent setting definitely demands a story that delivers, all guns blazing. It does, and then some . . . Fiction at it's finest." * Irish Independent * "Beautiful" * Stylist * "An exquisite love story" * Good Housekeeping * "A terrifying, moving and uplifting story" -- February Hot Read * Woman and Home * "A poignant against-the-odds love story" * Glamour * "Tender . . . Hope is the emotion that unspools the delicate connections between these brilliantly drawn characters" * Psychologies Magazine * "The Ballroom is a beautifully wrought novel, a tender, heartbreaking and insightful exploration of the longings that survive in the most inhospitable environments." * Sunday Express 5/5 stars * "Magnificent...a luminary of historical fiction...writing history from the margins, the personal stories behind the era, she delivers profound, poignant stories that stir the emotions." * Press Association * "All the intensity and lyricism of Hope's debut, Wake" * Daily Mail * "The Ballroom confirms her as a novelist of immense power...Exquisitely good. Sensitive, engrossing and highly recommended" * Metro * "The Ballroom is a beautiful, gripping, heart-wrenching, thought-provoking book. I was so enthralled, I read it in an evening, unwilling to put it down." * thewritesofwoman.wordpress.com * "An atmospheric and thought provoking love story" * bookslifeandeverything.blogspot.co.uk *