The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters

The Paying Guests
by Sarah Waters

I've never read anything by Sarah Waters before, even though she is an international bestselling author and has had her books dramatised on the television. Then I read a precis of her new novel, The Paying Guests, and fancied the sound of it and decided to give it a read.

It was fantastic. At the moment The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt is my favourite book of the past year, but this gives it a run for its money! I was utterly absorbed in every word, you can picture every single scene as it's described, the story is compelling, all the characters are wonderfully realistic, the story is dramatic, horrific, heartbreaking. On some of the pages I had to cover up the facing page with my hand so my eye didn't 'accidentally' wander over to prematurely discover what had happened. I didn't want it to end, and when it did I wanted to read it again. 

The year is 1922. Frances Wray and her mother live in a big house in South London. Frances has lost her 2 brothers and her father in the First World War, and she and her mother are trying to get their lives back together. Frances has never married, though she was very much in love once, but it had to come to an end. They have no money and so have to rely on renting out rooms in order to pay the bills and feed themselves. The first paying guests are Mr and Mrs Barber - Len and Lilian. What starts as a new and rather uncomfortable relationship with them both as tenants, then blossoms into a close and loving friendship - at least for two of the party. But something absolutely awful happens which changes and upsets the dynamics of everything and everyone in the household.

A completely engrossing read. I will definitely seek out Sarah's other books to read.