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Fingersmith
- Author
- Sarah Waters
- Narrator
- Juanita McMahon
- Publisher
- Little, Brown Book Group
- Publish Date
- 25 September 2014
- Run Time
- 23 hours 36 minutes
- Format
- Audiobook
- Rating
- 5.0 (1 review)
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What to expect
London 1862. Sue Trinder, orphaned at birth, grows up among petty thieves - fingersmiths - under the rough but loving care of Mrs Sucksby and her 'family'. But from the moment she draws breath, Sue's fate is linked to that of another orphan growing up in a gloomy mansion not too many miles away.
Critics Review
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Totally immersive with brilliantly drawn characters... a page-turning thriller while managing to be a tender love story
Adam Kay
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Intensely atmospheric, impeccably paced, and cunningly structured, this is that rarity in contemporary fiction: a deeply serious novel that is also a thumping great read
Mail on Sunday
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There are always novels that you envy people for not having read yet, for the pleasure they still have to come. Well, this is one. Long, dark, twisted and satisfying, it's a fabulous piece of writing... An unforgettable experience
Guardian
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One of the best twists of any book, one that lifts the novel from a brilliant piece of modern Victoriana to something altogether more original and daring... Fingersmith, like so many great books, calls into question our desire to fit novels into restrictive boxes... If you like a great story, brilliantly told, you'll love this book
The Times
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A chilling, ingenious erotic thriller - unputdownable
Sunday Express
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She distils a slice of London Victoriana, involving pickpockets, orphans and identity, into a fantastic plot and handles the story so well that you just can't wait to get to the end
Tracy Chevalier
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High spirited and utterly compelling
Observer
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Serious entertainment... One of the most startling plot twists you'll ever read
The Times
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A thrillerish plot, fast-moving with umpteen cunning twists, it is inhabited by richly human characters whose fortunes instantly engage the reader
Sunday Telegraph
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Fingersmith's tight and intricate plotting and full-flavour characters follow in a fine tradition of gothic storytelling, full of love, villains and intrigue
Observer
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This disquietingly twisted tale will engross
Guardian
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Deliciously brazen... A smart and seductive enchantment
Los Angeles Times
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Fingersmith is the third slice of engrossing lesbian Victoriana from Sarah Waters. Although lighter and more melodramatic in tone than its predecessor Affinity, this hypnotic suspense novel is awash with all manner of gloomy Dickensian leitmotifs
Travis Elborough
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Oliver Twist with a twist... Waters spins an absorbing tale that withholds as much as it discloses... A pulsating story
New York Times Book Review
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Superb storytelling. Fingersmith is gripping; so suspenseful and twisting is the plot that for the last 250 pages, I read at breakneck speed
USA Today
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A deftly plotted thriller... absorbing and elegant
Entertainment Weekly
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A marvelous pleasure... Waters's noted attention to historical detail and her beautifully sensitive dialogue help to anchor the force-five plot twisters
Washington Post
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Calls to mind the feverishly gloomy haunts of Charlotte and Emily Bronte... Elaborate and satisfying
Seattle Times
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A richly woven tale of duplicity and passion... nobody writing today surpasses the precocious Waters's virtuosic handling of narrative complexity and thickly textured period detail. This is a marvelous novel
Kirkus
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A sweeping read
Boston Globe
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Astonishing narrative twists
Newsday
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Fingersmith is not only a double female bildungsroman but a breathtaking love story, a crime novel, a historical tour de force and it has the single most astonishing midpoint reversal of any novel that I have ever read in my life . . . The rest of us are mere shadows in the face of Sarah Waters' brilliance. This novel is a masterclass in writing no matter what genre you are writing in'
Julie Mae Cohen
User Reviews
Book 5.0
Narration 5.0
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5.0 5.0
This was as gripping as everyone told me it would be!
I thought such a long audiobook might feel intimidating to get through and begin to drag, but the narration was really immersive and kept up the pace amazingly!eleanorf 2026-09-02
Details
- Author
- Sarah Waters
- Narrator
- Juanita McMahon
- Duration
- 23 hours 36 minutes
- Release Date
- 25 September 2014
- ISBN
- 9781405532716
- Format
- Audiobook
- Publisher
- Little, Brown Book Group
- Genre
- Modern and contemporary fiction: literary and general
- Rating
- 5.0(1 review)
- Narration
- 5.0(1 review)
Synopsis
A BBC TWO BETWEEN THE COVERS BOOK CLUB PICK (BOOKER PRIZE GEMS)London 1862. Sue Trinder, orphaned at birth, grows up among petty thieves - fingersmiths - under the rough but loving care of Mrs Sucksby and her 'family'. But from the moment she draws breath, Sue's fate is linked to that of another orphan growing up in a gloomy mansion not too many miles away.
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