The Fraud

The remarkable debut historical book by Zadie Smith, the best-selling author of White Teeth

The year is 1873. Mrs. Eliza Touchet has lived with William Ainsworth, a once-famous novelist who is currently in decline, for thirty years. She is his Scottish housekeeper and his cousin through marriage.

Literature, justice, abolitionism, class, her cousin, his wives, and this life and the next are just a few of the numerous interests that Mrs. Touchet has. She is skeptical, though. She believes that her cousin lacks talent, that Mr. Charles Dickens, his successful buddy, is a bully and a moralist, and that England is a country of facades where nothing is truly as it seems.

In contrast, Andrew Bogle was raised as a slave on the Hope Plantation in Jamaica. He is aware that every lump of sugar has a human cost. The poor are duped by the rich. Additionally, people are easier to manipulate than they think. Bogle knows that stating the correct tale will determine his destiny when he finds himself in London as a prominent witness in a well-known case of impersonation.

Mrs Touchet and the whole of England are enthralled by the 'Tichborne Trial'. Is Sir Roger Tichborne the person he claims to be? Or is he a phony? Mrs. Touchet is a global woman. Bogle is not a moron. But determining what is real proves to be a difficult endeavor in a society of self-deception and dishonesty.

The Fraud is a brilliant tale about truth and fiction, Jamaica and Britain, fraudulence and authenticity, and the mystery of "other people," and it is based on true historical events.