Fingersmith

Sarah Waters offers an intriguing blend of mystery and suspense, secrets and betrayal in her evocative Victorian underworld page-turner.

London, 1862. Sue Trinder, orphaned at birth, grows up under the rough but loving care of Mrs Sucksby and her ‘family’ of unwanted babies turned artful dodgers - ‘fingersmiths’. When one of Mrs Sucksby’s scams places Sue as a lady’s maid to an orphan-heiress in a sprawling Gothic mansion, the narrative explores even darker corners, among the pinched corsets and rustling skirts of Victorian England.

Shortlisted: The Man Booker Prize 2002
Published by: Virago
Publication date: 4 February 2002

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Sarah Waters

About the Author

Sarah Waters has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize three times - in 2002, 2006 and 2009. Her novels have won the Betty Trask Award and the Somerset Maugham Award and have also been shortlisted for the Orange Prize.

More about Sarah Waters

Video highlights

An exclusive video interview with Sarah Waters on her 2002 Man Booker Prize shortlisted book ‘Fingersmith’.

In 2016, Korean director Park Chan-wook released The Handmaiden, which was inspired by Fingersmith. The Handmaiden transported the action of the book from Victorian-era Britain to Korea under Japanese colonial rule. Another Gaze said the film was ‘a brilliantly dark ode to women’s desire and autonomy: a subject that remains as pressing today as it was a century ago’.

Fingersmith on screen

In 2016, Korean director Park Chan-wook released The Handmaiden, which was inspired by Fingersmith.

The Handmaiden transported the action of the book from Victorian-era Britain to Korea under Japanese colonial rule.

Another Gaze said the film was ‘a brilliantly dark ode to women’s desire and autonomy: a subject that remains as pressing today as it was a century ago’.

Watch The Handmaiden on Netflix here