At the age of six, Mary Ward, the child of a poor farming family in Suffolk, has a revelation: she isn't Mary, she's a boy. So begins Mary's heroic struggle to change gender, while around her others also strive to find a place of safety and fulfilment in a savage and confusing world.
Promotion info
'A remarkable novel-The product of a truly original mind, whose inventions are magically unforseeable' The Times 20020220
Reviews
"A remarkable novel... . The product of a truly original mind, whose inventions are magically unforseeable." - "The Times" "Hypnotic... Curiously beautiful and strikingly original." - "Spectator" "Rose Tremain writes comedy that can break your heart... Funny, absorbing and quite original. I've read nothing to touch it this year." - "Literary Review" "Brilliant... . A strong, complex, unsentimental novel." - "TLS"