«Profunda y elegante. -Margaret Atwood

Esta novela es la historia de una criada acusada de asesinato en el Londres del siglo XIX, pero es también la de todas las mujeres que, a lo largo de muchas generaciones, tuvieron que luchar por encontrar su propia voz en un mundo que no quería escucharlas. El extraordinario debut literario de Sarah Collins, galardonado con el prestigioso Premio Costa y alabado por autoras de la talla de Margaret Atwood, nos habla de una mujer que, teniéndolo todo en contra, decide tomar las riendas de su propia historia.

Frannie Langton es una sirvienta mulata y bastarda, de origen jamaicano, que llega a Londres para ser entregada, casi como un regalo exótico, a un renombrado científico y su esposa. El asesinato del matrimonio, del cual es acusada la criada, es todo un escándalo: los periódicos la retratan como un monstruo, a pesar de que ella no recuerda nada de la noche en que ocurrieron las muertes. Será su abogado quien le pida que narre su vida, ya que en ese relato reside la única posibilidad de salvarse de la horca. Está Frannie a tiempo contar su historia? Es o no una asesina?

ENGLISH DESCRIPTION

This breathtaking debut, winner of the Costa First Novel Award, is a murder mystery that travels across the Atlantic and through the darkest channels of history. A brilliant, searing depiction of race, class, and oppression that penetrates the skin and sears the soul, it is the story of a woman of her own making in a world that would see her unmade.

All of London is abuzz with the scandalous case of Frannie Langton, accused of the brutal double murder of her employers, renowned scientist George Benham and his eccentric French wife, Marguerite. Crowds pack the courtroom, eagerly following every twist, while the newspapers print lurid theories about the killings and the mysterious woman being tried at the Old Bailey.
The testimonies against Frannie are damning. She is a seductress, a witch, a master manipulator, a whore.

But Frannie claims she cannot recall what happened that fateful evening, even if remembering could save her life. She doesn't know how she came to be covered in the victims' blood. But she does have a tale to tell: a story of her childhood on a Jamaican plantation, her apprenticeship under a debauched scientist who stretched all bounds of ethics, and the events that brought her into the Benhams' London home--and into a passionate and forbidden relationship.

Though her testimony may seal her conviction, the truth will unmask the perpetrators of crimes far beyond murder and indict the whole of English society itself.