Book description
In fin-de-siècle Copenhagen, part-time prostitute Charlotte
and her lumpen sidekick, Fru Schleswig, have taken on jobs as cleaning
ladies of dubious talent to tide them over the harsh winter of 1897.
But the home of their neurotic new employer, the widow Krak, soon
reveals itself to be riddled with dark secrets - including the
existence of a demonic machine rumoured to swallow people alive.
Rudely catapulted into twenty-first-century London, the hapless duo
discover a whole new world of glass, labour-saving devices and hectic,
impossible romance…
Liz Jensen is the author of Egg Dancing (longlisted for
the Orange Prize), Ark Baby (shortlisted for the Guardian
Fiction Prize and longlisted for the Orange Prize), The Paper
Eater, War Crimes for the Home (longlisted for the Orange
Prize), and The Ninth Life of Louis Drax, currently in
development as a major motion picture by Anthony Minghella. She
divides her time between Copenhagen and London.
