Edith Holler: A Novel

ISBN: 059318890X

Author: Carey, Edward

Condition: New

NPR BEST BOOK OF THE YEARThe witty and entrancing story of a young woman trapped in a ramshackle English playhouse-and the mysterious figure who threatens the theater's very survivalThe year is 1901. Englands beloved queen has died, and her aging son has finally taken the throne. In the eastern city of Norwich, bright and inquisitive young Edith Holler spends her days among the boisterous denizens of the Holler Theatre, warned by her domineering father that the playhouse will literally tumble down if she should ever leave its confines. Fascinated by tales of the city she knows only from afar, she decides to write a play of her own: a stage adaptation of the legend of Mawther Meg, a monstrous figure said to have used the blood of countless children to make the local delicacy known as Beetle Spread. But when her father suddenly announces his engagement to a peculiar, imposing woman named Margaret Unthank, heir to the actual Beetle Spread fortune, Edith scrambles to protect her father, the theatre, and her play-the one thing thats truly hers-from the newcomers sinister designs.Teeming with unforgettable characters and illuminated by the authors trademark fantastical illustrations, Edith Holler is a surprisingly modern fable of one young womans struggle to escape her familys control-and to reveal inconvenient truths about the way children are used.