The Miniaturist meets The Yellow Wallpaper in this sumptuous debut novel about three women whose fates collide in a wallpaper factory on the eve of the French Revolution.
Are some patterns destined to be repeated?
"Spellbinding and decadent . . . an astounding debut" SUSAN STOKES-CHAPMAN, author of PANDORA
___________________
Paris, 1789. The Oberst Factory, which crafts exquisite wallpaper for the most fashionable French homes, is a place shrouded in mystery. Most enigmatic is the woman pictured in each of its prints, rumoured to be the late Mrs Oberst, who died in peculiar circumstances.
When sisters Lara and Sofi arrive there for work, they quickly form a friendship with Josef Oberst, the motherless heir to the factory. Whilst Sofi's political fervour intensifies, Lara is disturbed by the uncanny way her life appears mirrored in the wallpaper. Meanwhile Hortense, Josef's spoilt aristocratic wife, is similarly unnerved by the scenes that line the walls of her new home. With the mobs growing ever more violent, is she in danger of meeting the same untimely end as the last Mrs Oberst?
As revolution blazes across France, the lives of Sofi, Lara and Hortense are set to collide in unimaginable and irrevocable ways. Can they change what lies ahead, or are some patterns destined to be repeated?
_________
'We are gifted a platter of intriguing, unpredictable characters and an expertly-plotted narrative that delights and amuses despite the darkly unsettling mystery' JOANNE BURN, author of THE HEMLOCK CURE
'Exquisite writing and a riveting plot' ANNA MAZZOLA, author of THE CLOCKWORK GIRL