In Laura Fish's ambitious and captivating novel, three very different women struggle for freedom. While Elizabeth Barrett Browning is confined to bed, chafing against the restriction of her doctors and writing poetry and fretful letters, at her family's Jamaican estate Kaydia, the Creole housekeeper, tries to protect her daughter from their predatory master; and a recently freed black slave, Sheba, mourns the loss of her lover.

As Elizabeth, a passionate abolitionist, struggles to come to terms with the source of her wealth and privilege both Sheba and Kydia fight to escape a tragic past which seems ever-present. The resulting novel is an extraordinary evocation of the dark side of the nineteenth-century that is both horrifying and ultimately redeeming.

"A gifted writer, and her manipulation of language is her forte - brilliant, sensuous and shocking" - Sunday Times

"Fish nimbly draws parallels between [her characters'] lives, packing a powerful emotional punch in the process" - Tatler

"A powerful expression of post-colonial guilt" - Guardian

"A provocative contribution to revisionist (and feminist) post-colonial fiction" - Times Literary Supplement

"Shaw is an accomplished storyteller, whose beautiful prose delivers you right into the heart of the plantation" - Time Out

"Fish is a passionate and poetic writer" - Daily Telegraph

"An extraordinary second novel" - Scotland on Sunday