Affinity

Affinity
Genre : Fiction
Published : 1 May 1999 - Virago
At once a compelling ghost story and an intriguing literary mystery set in 1870s London, AFFINITY brings together two very different women: Margaret Prior, a troubled middle-class spinster and Selina Dawes, a clever and beautiful spirit medium, now a prisoner at one of London’s most notorious gaols. Among the misery and wretchedness of the cells, Margaret, a prison visitor, finds herself drawn to Selina’s seeming innocence. Little does she know that her relationship with Selina will pull her into a shadowy world of unruly spirits and unseemly passions.

AFFINITY was shortlisted for the 2001 Mail on Sunday / John Llewellyn Rhys Prize. It won the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award 2000 and a Somerset Maugham Award.

Reviews

Spooky, spellbinding, exquisitely written … I do believe Waters is on the way to becoming a major literary star.

Val Hennessy

Refined, repressed and simmering … A delicious tale of Victorian spiritualism.

Independent on Sunday

AFFINITY… may turn out to be the signature of late-twentieth century fiction in Britain.

Giles Foden, Guardian

A work of intense and atmospheric imagination... Sarah Waters is... a kind of feminist Dickens.

Fiona Pittkethley, Telegraph

Indeed, this is such a brilliant writer that her readers would believe anything she told them

AN Wilson, Daily Mail