A Sunday Times fiction book of the year
The year is 1793 and Herbert Powyss is set on making his name as a scientist. Determined to study the effects of prolonged solitude on another human being, he advertises for someone willing to live in his cellar for seven years in return for a generous financial reward. The only man to apply is John Warlow, a semi-literate farm labourer with a wife and six children to support. Cut off from nature, Warlow soon begins losing his grip on sanity while, above ground, Powyss rapidly becomes obsessed with Warlow's wife, Hannah.
One of 2019's most high-profile hardback publications, now out in paperback.
More than eight thousand copies in print
Featured on Radio Four's Book at Bedtime
BBC History Magazine Best Historical Fiction of 2019