Description
Book Synopsis''Captivating ... A highly accomplished historical novel'' Washington Post
''Superbly described ... achieves a subtle, disconcerting effect'' New York Review of Books
In the dying days of the 19th century, the world''s eyes turn to the small South African town of Ladysmith. Under siege from Boer forces, British soldiers and townsfolk wait for rescue. They try to keep their spirits up with parties and cricket matches, but General Buller''s relief column cannot break through. All that arrives is danger, disease and starvation.
Amongst a cast of characters ranging from Irish Republican renegades to London literary editors, from Churchill to Gandhi, is one young woman. For Bella Kiernan, the siege represents an unexpected chance to rebel against constricting social and domestic bonds and pursue a life of romance and adventure.
From the bestselling author of THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND
Trade ReviewCaptivating.... A highly accomplished historical novel
* Washington Post *
Skillful.... Precise [and] affirming.... Foden creates a complex mosaic * Dallas Morning News *
LADYSMITH is a haunting, disturbing novel-not only about how things were in a long-forgotten war, but how that war made us what we are
* Independent *
Once again Giles Foden has carried out an exacting program of reading and research
* New York Review of Books *
The engine that keeps this novel in motion is not just the progress of the siege but the sense of lives lived before and afterward, of events and the memory of events slanting away into the steepening perspectives of age
* New York Review of Books *
