Description

‘Casually magisterial’ Guardian

‘Endlessly intriguing’ Observer

‘A marvel of a novel’ Ali Smith

‘Jane Eyre by way of Patricia Highsmith’ BBC Radio 4

‘Puts Stevens in the class of Sarah Waters’ Financial Times

‘There was a painting my family set on fire. It burned to ashes, and then it came back.’

Oxfordshire, 1899. Grace Inderwick grows up on the peripheries of a once-great household, an unwanted guest in her uncle’s home. She has unusual skills and unusual predilections: for painting, though faces elude her; for lurking in the shadows; for other girls.

Then a letter arrives, postmarked Saint Helena. After years missing at sea, Grace’s cousin Charles is ready to come home. When Charles returns, unrecognisable and uncanny, a rift emerges between those who claim he is an imposter and Grace’s aunt, who insists he is her son. And Grace, whose intimate knowledge of forgeries is her own closely-guarded secret, must decide who and what to believe in, and what kind of life she wants to live.

Deftly-plotted and shimmering with Nell Stevens’s distinctive intelligence, style and wit, THE ORIGINAL is a novel about the value of authenticity in art and in love, and what it means to be a true original.

‘What a bewitching book this is. A sinuous, thrilling meditation on fakes and forgers, with echoes of Daphne du Maurier and Sarah Waters and an audacity that is totally original to Nell Stevens herself’ Olivia Laing, author of THE GARDEN AGAINST TIME

‘Deliciously engaging and wildly intelligent. I adored this novel about art, authenticity and desire and am a devoted fan of Nell Stevens’ Aysegul Savas, author of THE ANTHROPOLOGISTS

‘A delightful, playful puzzle of a novel, and a brilliant twist on the nineteenth century orphan-makes-good story. THE ORIGINAL asks whether, sometimes, faking it is the right thing to do’ Claire Fuller, author of UNSETTLED GROUND

‘A wonderful novel about identity, creativity, money and belonging. It’s so witty and propulsive you will forget how brilliantly constructed it is, this tale that brims with the beauty of art, of how to triumph in a difficult world. I absolutely loved it’ Jessie Burton, author of THE MINIATURIST

Publisher Review

‘What a bewitching book this is. A sinuous, thrilling meditation on fakes and forgers, with echoes of Daphne du Maurier and Sarah Waters and an audacity that is totally original to Nell herself’ * Olivia Laing, author of THE GARDEN AGAINST TIME * ‘Deliciously engaging and wildly intelligent. I adored this novel about art, authenticity and desire and am a devoted fan of Nell Stevens’ * Aysegul Savas, author of THE ANTHROPOLOGISTS * ‘A delightful, playful puzzle of a novel, and a brilliant twist on the nineteenth century orphan-makes-good story. THE ORIGINAL asks whether, sometimes, faking it is the right thing to do’ * Claire Fuller, author of UNSETTLED GROUND * ‘A gorgeous, wildly seductive novel, shimmering with intelligence, humour and joy’ * Sarah Waters (on BRIEFLY, A DELICIOUS LIFE) * ‘Electrifyingly beautiful, exhilaratingly clever’ * Imogen Hermes Gowar (on BRIEFLY, A DELICIOUS LIFE) * ‘Like the best historical fiction it is playfully disingenuous… the whole book is radiant with life’ * Financial Times (on BRIEFLY, A DELICIOUS LIFE) * ‘Nell Stevens’s hugely accomplished debut novel evokes a sense both of place and time with a confidence that augurs well for her future career’ * Guardian (on BRIEFLY, A DELICIOUS LIFE) * ‘Stevens is a very artful writer’ * Rebecca Mead, The New Yorker (on MRS GASKELL & ME) * ‘A truly lovely book – acutely observed and honest and melancholy’ * Jessie Greengrass (on MRS GASKELL & ME) * ‘Perfect… as funny as it is poignant’ * Lena Dunham (on BLEAKER HOUSE) * ‘A marvellously inventive and perfectly forged novel that poses a mischievous question: what role does likeness play in love? The ghosts of Oscar Wilde and Wilkie Collins stalk these pages, whether they know it or not’ * Eleanor Catton, author of Birnam Wood * ‘A wonderful novel about identity, creativity, money and belonging. It’s so witty and propulsive you will forget how brilliantly constructed it is, this tale that brims with the beauty of art, of how to triumph in a difficult world’ * Jessie Burton, author of The Miniaturist *