Delusion: a novel

by Michèle Roberts

"On the narrative level alone, this is a compelling combination of Victorian pastiche and psychological thriller, fully and vividly imagined and often very funny. Rarely has the creative interaction of past and present been so suggestively and entertainingly conveyed."- The Independent on Sunday "On the surface a gripping mystery story, the novel is a challenging exploration of women's friendships, history, sensuality and passion. Four main characters spanning three moments in history-ancient Egypt, Victorian England, contemporary London-unravel an ambivalent tale of birth, death, exploitation, closeness and betrayal."- Guardian Voices, auras, materializations. Is she a mere trickster, a charlatan who plays on the anguish of the bereaved, or perhaps a hysteric who suffers delusions? No matter, in the shabby brick precincts of East London, the sances have won the pretty, blond medium Flora Milk local acclaim, and soon she will find herself more comfortably situated in the Victorian household of Sir William Preston, a researcher of some renown in psychic phenomena. Indeed, his wife Minny, who is still grieving the loss of her infant daughter, will embrace the gifted sixteen-year-old as her "protge." At once a ghost story and a psychological thriller, this elegant novel again demonstrates that Michele Roberts is a literary talent of the highest order. Michele Roberts is the author of eleven novels, including Daughters of the House , shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and winner of the WHSmith Literary Award, and Reader, I Married Him , also published by Pegasus Books. She lives in England.

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Michèle Brigitte Roberts is the author of fifteen novels, including Ignorance which was nominated for the Women's Prize for Fiction and Daughters of the House which won the W.H. Smith Literary Award and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Her memoir Paper Houses was BBC Radio 4's Book of the Week in June 2007. She has also published poetry and short stories, most recently collected in Mud: Stories of Sex and Love. Half-English and half-French, Roberts lives in London and in the Mayenne, France. She is Emeritus Professor of Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia.

Reviews

[Heather · Rating 2 out of 5]

this book is poetry in motion, and i mean that in a bad way. it is simply riddled with beautiful prose, stunning imagery and powerful insights--and that is its downfall.

this author clearly has a love affair with language, and while i adore words, i know when to cut the poetics and focus on, let's say, plot. plot peeks it head up here and there, but because of the presentation, the plot is *very* difficult to follow for the first 30 pages or so. and this book is less than 150 pages!

in the undoubtedly experimental front, this book eschews both chapters, and identifying the *current* protagonist til late in each section (my term, since there are no chapters). this is fine later in the book, when each voice (there are 4 main characters) has firmly been identified, but again, for the first third of the book, that was too tricky. with the heavy prose on top, it made this a difficult read. thankfully the book was short.