Search results for ""Author Clare Beams""

It''s 1948, and Irene Willard has had five miscarriages. She''s desperate to give her beloved husband the child he desperately desires and, now pregnant for the sixth time, checks in to an isolated house-cum-hospital run by a husband-and-wife team of doctors who are pioneering a cure, they say, to ''rectify the maternal environment''. There, she befriends Margaret and Pearl, women who are also yearning for motherhood, and together, they undertake the doctors'' examinations, both physical and psychological. In the meantime, she discovers a long-forgotten walled garden on the spacious grounds, a place imbued with its own impenetrable powers and pulls. As the doctors'' plans begin to crumble, Irene and her fellow patients make a desperate bid to harness the power of the garden for themselves - and must face the incalculable risks associated with such incalculable rewards.Haunting, uncanny and unforgettable, The Garden exhumes private griefs and mysteries in a stu

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'A modern scream of female outrage. A masterpiece' ELIZABETH GILBERT'Astoundingly original . . . belongs on the shelf with your Margaret Atwood' NEW YORK TIMESHaunting, intense and irresistible, The Illness Lesson is an extraordinary debut about women's minds and bodies, and the time-honoured tradition of doubting both.In 1871, at an elite new school designed to shape the minds of young women, the inscrutable and defiant Eliza Bell has been overwhelmed by an inexplicable illness.Before long, the other girls start to succumb to its peculiar symptoms - rashes, tics,night wanderings and fits.As the disease takes hold, teacher Caroline Hood tries desperately to hide her own symptoms, butthe powers-that-be turn to a sinister physician with dubious methods.Does Caroline have the courage to confront the all-male, all-knowing authorities of her worldand protect the young women in her care?'You want to know how horrifying things happened while decent people looked on and did nothing? Read this novel' MARY BETH KEANE'Subtle, clever, suspenseful . . . builds to a shocking climax' DIANE SETTERFIELD'A Sunday Times Book to Read in 2020: A classic ghost story for fans of Picnic at Hanging Rock, Deborah Levy, Jeffrey Eugenides' SUNDAY TIMES STYLE

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