Synopsis
The Sunday Times Top Five Bestseller
A BBC Two Between the Covers Book Club Pick
'A wonderfully inventive novel' — The Times and Sunday Times, Best Historical Fiction of 2023
Laura Shepherd-Robinson's The Square of Sevens is an epic and sweeping novel set in Georgian high society, a dazzling story offering up mystery, intrigue, heartbreak, and audacious twists.
This is your story, Red. You must tell it well . . .
A girl known only as Red, the daughter of a Cornish fortune-teller, travels with her father making a living predicting fortunes using the ancient method: the Square of Sevens. When her father suddenly dies, Red becomes the ward of a gentleman scholar.
Now raised as a lady amidst the Georgian splendour of Bath, her fortune-telling is a delight to high society. But she cannot ignore the questions that gnaw at her soul: who was her mother? How did she die? And who are the mysterious enemies her father was always terrified would find him?
The pursuit of these mysteries takes her from Cornwall and Bath to London and Devon, from the rough ribaldry of the Bartholomew Fair to the grand houses of two of the most powerful families in England. And while Red's quest brings her the possibility of great reward, it also leads her into grave danger . . .
'A masterpiece' — Janice Hallett, bestselling author of The Appeal
'A sweeping Dickensian tour de force of a novel' — Susan Stokes-Chapman, bestselling author of Pandora
'I doubt I’ll read a better book this year' — Chris Whitaker, bestselling author of We Begin at the End
Details
22 June 2023
9781529053678Reviews
[A] wonderfully inventive novel set in 18th-century England. As the heroine and narrator Red seeks the truth about her origins and possible connection to the wealthy De Lacy family, the reader’s expectations are constantly confounded with one twist in her tale after anotherThe Times and Sunday Times, Best Historical Fiction of 2023
This rich, complex and haunting Dickensian epic is a triumph of the Gothic genre . . . a masterpieceJanice Hallett, betselling author of The Appeal
A sweeping Dickensian tour de force of a novel . . . cementing the author’s place as the queen of modern Georgian literatureSusan Stokes-Chapman, bestselling author of Pandora
A sprawling, exquisite, outright triumph . . . I doubt I’ll read a better book this yearChris Whitaker, author of We Begin At the End
