The Mermaid and Mrs. Hancock

Books

"The bustling, bawdy world of 18th-century London [is] expertly evoked . . . This is undoubtedly the start of a major career for this young writer." -Vogue Shortlisted for the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction • A Refinery 29 Favorite Book of the Year • A Booklist Top 10 First Novels of the Year • A People Best Book of the Fall One September evening in 1785, merchant Jonah Hancock learns that the captain of one of his trading vessels sold his ship for something rare and far more precious: a mermaid. Jonah is stunned-the object the captain presents him is brown and wizened, as small as an infant, with vicious teeth and claws, and a torso that ends in the tail of a fish. It is also dead. As gossip spreads through the docks, coffee shops, parlors and brothels, all of London is curious to see this marvel in Jonah Hancock's possession. Thrust from his ordinary existence, somber Jonah finds himself moving from the city's seedy underbelly to the finest drawing rooms of high society. At an opulent party, he makes ...