These beautiful bound proofs have arrived, just in time for Christmas, and on the second anniversary of Nell excitedly showing me the first work-in-progress pages of a novel about forgery and authenticity — in art and in love. As usual with her writing, I was hooked from the first sentence.
The Original is a magnificent follow-up to Nell's beautiful debut Briefly, A Delicious Life, and was acquired by Sophie Missing at Scribner UK to be published on 19 June 2025. Norton will publish in the US on 1 July. Claire Fuller has described it as ‘A delightful, playful puzzle of a novel, and a brilliant twist on the nineteenth century orphan-makes-good story.’ I also think of it as a clever twist on the contemporary grifter story: who is grifting and who is genuine? You'll have to read it and see...
Oxfordshire, 1899. Grace Inderwick grows up on the peripheries of a once-great household, an unwanted guest in her uncle’s home. She has unusual skills and unusual predilections: for painting, though faces elude her; for lurking in the shadows; for other girls.
Then a letter arrives, postmarked Saint Helena. After years missing at sea, Grace’s cousin Charles is ready to come home. When Charles returns, unrecognisable and uncanny, a rift emerges between those who claim he is an imposter and Grace’s aunt, who insists he is her son. And Grace, whose intimate knowledge of forgeries is her own closely-guarded secret, must decide who and what to believe in, and what kind of life she wants to live.
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