JUNE 2025 REESE WITHERSPOON BOOK CLUB PICK
In this dazzling debut novel, a young reclusive coder unearths the story of a lost Shanghai pencil company and a legacy of magic, espionage and family secrets that will alter the path of her life forever.
‘Wildly inventive … Allison King is a talent to watch’ LIZ MOORE
‘Riotously audacious and entertaining – cinematic, jazzlike, a humdinger of a novel’ KAMILA SHAMSIE
‘A maximalist epic that grabs you by the collar’THE STATESMAN
‘A wild romp that ends with the scent of river water in your nose and the breath of a flute in your ears’INDIA TODAY
‘Riotously audacious and entertaining – cinematic, jazzlike, a humdinger of a novel’ KAMILA SHAMSIE
‘A maximalist epic that grabs you by the collar’THE STATESMAN
‘A wild romp that ends with the scent of river water in your nose and the breath of a flute in your ears’INDIA TODAY
‘Darkly glamorous. Your summer read is sorted’Sunday Times Style
‘Glamorous, exuberant and propulsive’ Daisy Buchanan
‘Mad Men meets White Lotus’Red
‘Stylish and twisting’ The Times
‘A wild ride and a heck of a lot of fun’ iNews
‘Simply the most consistently inventive, brilliant, curious and creative writer going’ GILLIAN FLYNN
‘Gripping … Bravura storytelling’ VOGUE
‘A blood-soaked, gothic nightmare’ FINANCIAL TIMES
‘Simply the most consistently inventive, brilliant, curious and creative writer going’ GILLIAN FLYNN
‘Gripping … Bravura storytelling’ VOGUE
‘A blood-soaked, gothic nightmare’ FINANCIAL TIMES
‘Simply the most consistently inventive, brilliant, curious and creative writer going’ GILLIAN FLYNN
‘Gripping … Bravura storytelling’ VOGUE
‘A blood-soaked, gothic nightmare’ FINANCIAL TIMES
‘Simply the most consistently inventive, brilliant, curious and creative writer going’ GILLIAN FLYNN
‘Gripping … Bravura storytelling’ VOGUE
‘A blood-soaked, gothic nightmare’ FINANCIAL TIMES
‘A gorgeous, sweeping epic’ ANN NAPOLITANO
‘A master of prose’WASHINGTON POST
‘One of my favourite writers’ ROXANE GAY
‘Spectacular’ JOANNE SEFTON
‘I didn’t want it to end’ SARA SHERIDAN
‘Held me completely in its thrall until the very last line’ SUSAN STOKES-CHAPMAN, bestselling author of Pandora
‘A well-researched and thoroughly convincing page-turner’ LAURA SHEPPERSON, bestselling author of The Heroines
A SUNDAY TIMES HISTORICAL FICTION BOOK OF THE MONTH
SHORTLISTED FOR THE HISTORICAL WRITERS’ ASSOCIATION DEBUT CROWN PRIZE
‘Simply exceptional…I envy anyone who hasn’t yet read it’Daily Mail
‘A gripping story of tumbling fury and terror’Independent on Sunday
‘Dizzyingly, dazzlingly good’ Daily Mail
‘Our most brilliant English writer’Guardian
‘It is a book not read, but lived’ Telegraph
‘Her Cromwell novels are, for my money, the greatest English novels of this century’ Observer
A captivating novel by the author of the 2022 Booker Prize-shortlisted Treacle Walker
