Lily

A Tale of Revenge from the Sunday Times bestselling author

By: Rose Tremain

Narrated by: Hattie Morahan

Brought to you by Penguin.

Nobody knows yet that she is a murderer...

Abandoned at the gates of a London park one winter's night in 1850, baby Lily Mortimer is saved by a young police constable and taken to the London Foundling Hospital. Lily is fostered by an affectionate farming family in rural Suffolk, enjoying a brief childhood idyll before she is returned to the Hospital, where she is punished for her rebellious spirit. Released into the harsh world of Victorian London, Lily becomes a favoured employee at Belle Prettywood's Wig Emporium, but all the while she is hiding a dreadful secret...

Across the years, policeman Sam Trench keeps watch over the young woman he once saved. When Sam meets Lily again, there is an instant attraction between them and Lily is convinced that Sam holds the key to her happiness - but might he also be the one to uncover her crime and so condemn her to death?

© Rose Tremain 2021 (P) Penguin Audio 2021

Critic reviews

Lily, in addition to its pellucid prose, is shamelessly gripping (Jake Kerridge)

Tremain's latest novel more than lives up to its atmospheric, riveting beginning... It's consummate storytelling, and finds room for redemption as well as revenge (Hephzibah Anderson)

Another memorable and engrossing read from Tremain, which brings Victorian London, and especially courageous Lily, to life on the page (Joanne Finney)

A heartbreaking story set in Victorian England from the pitch-perfect pen of Rose Tremain (Antonia Senior)

Tremain's gift is to create characters whose experiences span every walk of life, but who are grounded in their author's understanding of the world

Enthralling... Tremain evokes Victorian London with visceral intensity in a gripping and deeply humane novel exploring themes of rejection, poverty, guilt and redemption (Hannah Beckerman)

It's more than gratifying to open [Tremain's] new novel, Lily, and immediately see that she is still writing at full throttle... This is the literary equivalent of all your favourite Christmas telly programmes rolled into one... Lily's story is a winter's tale: a cosy pageturner that will whisk you away from the 21st century while engaging and sharpening your mind. (Melissa Katsoulis)

No writer can inhabit the skin of a historical period and bring it so pulsatingly alive as Rose Tremain. No one can break your heart quite like this. In this compassionate, generous, soaringly beautiful book, Tremain is at the top of her game. Read and be transported (Neel Mukherjee)

Lily is an ingenious blend of historical novel, moral fable and fairy story. Tremain, a pre-eminent historical novelist, vividly evokes the disparate social worlds of Victorian London... Lily is a tale not just of revenge but of redemption, which carries an intense emotional charge. Tremain again displays her supreme ability to create characters who are at once totally true to the period and instantly identifiable to the modern reader

Lily is the perfect heroine, courageous and bold (Nina Pottell)

Beautiful

Beautifully written and narrated. Very sad in places but happy in others. Really excellent characters.