Worlds collide, ancient boundaries are crossed, taboos are broken and a violent crime is committed in Rose Tremain’s powerful and unsettling novel
Restoration
Written by Rose Tremain
- Shortlisted
- The Booker Prize 1989
- Published by Hamish Hamilton
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In Rose Tremain’s wry historical novel, a student abandons his studies to revel in gluttony, indolence and buffoonery at the Court of King Charles II
Having forsaken Medicine for the Court, Robert Merivel finds favour with the King, and serves as ‘paper groom’ to the youngest royal mistress in exchange for an estate and knighthood. But by falling in love with her himself, he violates the rules and is banished from Court. Merivel’s enforced purgatory leads to work in a Quaker Bedlam - and a yet more painful fall from grace - before he can achieve spiritual and social restoration.
Rose Tremain
A year after judging the Booker Prize, Rose Tremain was shortlisted for Restoration. She wasn’t done, however, and renewed her acquaintance with the prize in 2010 as a longlistee with Trespass
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