NOW A MAJOR BBC DRAMA starring Romola Garai, Chris O'Dowd, Gillian Anderson, Richard E. Grant, Shirley Henderson, and Mark Gatiss.
'Watch your step. Keep your wits about you; you will need them....' So begins this irresistible voyage into the dark side of Victorian London. Amongst an unforgettable cast of low-life's, physicians, businessmen, and prostitutes, meet our heroine Sugar, a young woman trying to drag herself up from the gutter any way she can. Be prepared for a mesmerising tale of passion, intrigue, ambition, and revenge.
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(@canongatebooks, 18 May 2011, 41 hours 32 minutes, audiobook, bought from @audibleuk, narrated by Jill Tanner)
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I'm a huge fan of the author and have loved everything I've read. I struggled a lot with this book. Not due to anything other than I felt it was a slog to get through an audiobook more than 40 hours long just listening to a couple of hours a day. I would have had a better an easier job reading this on kindle. I've learned my lesson, no more 40 hour audiobooks for me. It's not practical. That aside, I thought this was a terrific book. I read a lot of historical fiction and it's become one of my top-genre's this year but I don't think I've read any chronicling the murky side of Victorian London and prostitution so this was a first for me. Faber uses an interesting technique of using an omniscient narrator who talks directly to the reader / listener and acts as a sort of tour guide showing you darker and seedier parts of the city. This is a very effective way of reeling you in. The characters especially William and Sugar are complex and made of flesh and blood. I was engrossed in the lush writing and rooted for the characters and cared about what happened to them. I felt a bit let down by the open ending as if Faber just wore himself out and forgot to write the last chapter.