Gothic, elegant, and suspenseful, Bone House vividly evokes seventeenth-century rural England. It is the tale of two women. One is Dora -- large, voluptuous, and charismatic -- a prostitute to whom men are drawn for pleasure, women for friendship. Her strange death in an icy ravine affects everyone in the tiny village: her enormous, slow-minded son; an embittered midwife; the hunchbacked lord of the manor; his decaying mother; and an itin- erant portrait painter, whose arrival in the village unearths secrets and passions beyond anyone's expectations.
The other -- young, slight, and solitary -- is a dutiful chambermaid to the mistress of the manor until Dora's accident begins to distract her from her daily tasks. Her quest to uncover the truth about the prostitute's mysterious life and sudden death leads her to a terrible discovery, and the beginnings of a future.
A novel about murder, flesh, fertility, desire, medicine, and art, Bone House transports readers to stratified Elizabethan England, where the body -- or "bone house" -- had a primary role in deter-mining one's destiny. Sensual, sophisticated, and fiercely compelling, this is an uncommonly assured debut.When Dora, the village prostitute, is found dead at the bottom of a ravine, everyone in her rural community is strangely shaken. The men grieve, of course -- but it's not just they who are affected, for the charismatic Dora touched everyone around her. At the center of those who mourn is the novel's narrator, a young maid serving the mistress of the local manor house, who sets out to unravel the complex web of secrets that lies behind Dora's death. This obsessive quest takes her back and forth between high and low society and eventually leads her to a terrible discovery and the beginnings of a future. Through the captivating and unfaltering voice of this appealing narrator, Betsy Tobin brilliantly illuminates the Elizabethan obsession with the body -- or "bone house" -- and its primary role in determining one's destiny. In rendering so vividly both the privileges and privation of Elizabethan village life, she has crafted an uncommonly graceful and riveting first novel.
Genre: Historical
The other -- young, slight, and solitary -- is a dutiful chambermaid to the mistress of the manor until Dora's accident begins to distract her from her daily tasks. Her quest to uncover the truth about the prostitute's mysterious life and sudden death leads her to a terrible discovery, and the beginnings of a future.
A novel about murder, flesh, fertility, desire, medicine, and art, Bone House transports readers to stratified Elizabethan England, where the body -- or "bone house" -- had a primary role in deter-mining one's destiny. Sensual, sophisticated, and fiercely compelling, this is an uncommonly assured debut.When Dora, the village prostitute, is found dead at the bottom of a ravine, everyone in her rural community is strangely shaken. The men grieve, of course -- but it's not just they who are affected, for the charismatic Dora touched everyone around her. At the center of those who mourn is the novel's narrator, a young maid serving the mistress of the local manor house, who sets out to unravel the complex web of secrets that lies behind Dora's death. This obsessive quest takes her back and forth between high and low society and eventually leads her to a terrible discovery and the beginnings of a future. Through the captivating and unfaltering voice of this appealing narrator, Betsy Tobin brilliantly illuminates the Elizabethan obsession with the body -- or "bone house" -- and its primary role in determining one's destiny. In rendering so vividly both the privileges and privation of Elizabethan village life, she has crafted an uncommonly graceful and riveting first novel.
Genre: Historical
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