Fingersmith

Title: Fingersmith
Author: Sarah Waters
Published: 2002 by Virago (this reprint from 2009)
Genre: Historical crime fiction
Pages: 548


I totally agree with one of the comments on the back: "There are always novels you envy people for not having read yet, for the pleasure they still have to come. Well, this is one." I saw the BBC movie made from the book a few years ago (was blown away by that already!), and so took my time before getting to read Fingersmith, in the hope that I would have forgotten most of it already.

Not bloody likely! This shit's unforgettable. Sarah Waters indeed is my favourite author these days. Well, her and Chuck Palahniuk. I really do wish I had read the book before seeing the movie, because now I knew the bigger twists and expected them.

It's the 1860's in London, and young fingersmith (=thief) Susan Trinder, who has lived her whole life among thieves and baby farmers, is seduced into a plot by one of her fellow thieves, a man known as the Gentleman. The plot is to insert her into the home of an old scholar and especially his young niece, to become her maid. Gentleman's plan is to marry the niece, who is to inherit a lot of money once she marries. He intends to put her in an asylum long before that, and Susan is to help him.

Of course things don't go quite like that, but it's very hard to say anything more without spoiling it. And there's a lot of it. Twists of plot that leave the reader breathless, believable characters you like and dislike, and a thoroughly illustrated Victorian England in all its dirt. The 500+ pages seemed endless at first, but they were over far too soon. I read most of them in three sittings, because once I picked up the book to read a little, I always ended reading one or two hundred pages. Now, I think I might watch the movie again. It was quite good as well. (((EDIT: Mmmmyeah, good, but doesn't reach the level of the book. Remembered it was better.)))


"You are waiting for me to start my story. Perhaps I was waiting, then. But my story had already started - I was only like you, and didn't know it."