2021/006: Affinity -- Sarah Waters

2021/006: Affinity -- Sarah Waters

The rain was fine — too fine to spoil the surface of the Thames, it shone like glass, and where the lamps of the bridges and the water-stairs showed there were wriggling snakes of red and yellow light. The pavements gleamed quite blue—like china plates. I should never have guessed that that dark night could have had so many colours in it.[loc. 4393]

Set in London in the 1870s, this is a compelling psychological drama centred on Margaret Prior, a middle-class lady who, after a nervous breakdown, becomes a prison visitor to the women's wing of the Millbank Penitentiary. Among the prisoners she encounters is Selina Dawes, spirit-medium, who is serving a sentence for fraud and assault. ( some spoilers )