A TLS BOOK OF THE YEAR

What every lover of George Eliot's work wants: a new novel made from her life and mind

Marian Evans is a scandalous figure, living in sin with a married man, George Henry Lewes. She has shocked polite society. In secret, though, she has begun writing fiction under the pseudonym George Eliot. As Adam Bede's fame grows, curiosity rises. Gradually it becomes apparent that the moral genius Eliot is none other than the disgraced woman.

Now celebrity begins. The world falls in love with her. She is the wise and great writer, sent to guide people through the increasingly secular, rudderless century. Public opinion shifts. Her scandals, forgiven. But this idyll is not secure and cannot last. When Lewes dies, Evans finds herself in danger of shocking the world all over again.

Meanwhile, in another century, two women compete to arrive at an interpretation of Eliot as writer and as woman...