{"product_id":"the-fraud-a-novel","title":"The Fraud: A Novel-[Second Chance]","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe New York Times bestseller • One of the New York Times 10 Best Books of the Year • One of NPR's Best Books of the Year • Named a Best Book of the Year by Publishers Weekly and BookPage • One of Oprah Daily's Best Novels of 2023\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“[A] brilliant new entry in Smith’s catalog . . . The Fraud is not a change for Smith, but a demonstration of how expansive her talents are.” —Los Angeles Times\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFrom acclaimed and bestselling novelist Zadie Smith, a kaleidoscopic work of historical fiction set against the legal trial that divided Victorian England, about who gets to tell their story—and who gets to be believed\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt is 1873. Mrs. Eliza Touchet is the Scottish housekeeper—and cousin by marriage—of a once-famous novelist, now in decline, William Ainsworth, with whom she has lived for thirty years.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMrs. Touchet is a woman of many interests: literature, justice, abolitionism, class, her cousin, his wives, this life and the next. But she is also sceptical. She suspects her cousin of having no talent; his successful friend, Mr. Charles Dickens, of being a bully and a moralist; and England of being a land of facades, in which nothing is quite what it seems.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAndrew Bogle, meanwhile, grew up enslaved on the Hope Plantation, Jamaica. He knows every lump of sugar comes at a human cost. That the rich deceive the poor. And that people are more easily manipulated than they realize. When Bogle finds himself in London, star witness in a celebrated case of imposture, he knows his future depends on telling the right story.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe “Tichborne Trial”—wherein a lower-class butcher from Australia claimed he was in fact the rightful heir of a sizable estate and title—captivates Mrs. Touchet and all of England. Is Sir Roger Tichborne really who he says he is? Or is he a fraud? Mrs. Touchet is a woman of the world. Mr. Bogle is no fool. But in a world of hypocrisy and self-deception, deciding what is real proves a complicated task. . . .\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBased on real historical events, The Fraud is a dazzling novel about truth and fiction, Jamaica and Britain, fraudulence and authenticity and the mystery of “other people.”\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bell House Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47832271618211,"sku":"9780525558989","price":12.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0706\/8588\/4579\/files\/9780525558989.jpg?v=1783010594","url":"https:\/\/www.bellhousebooks.com\/products\/the-fraud-a-novel","provider":"Bell House Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}