Rustication, A Novel

One of Publishers Weekly's Best Books of the Year—a gothic masterpiece from the best-selling author of The Quincunx.
Christmas 1863. Seventeen-year-old Richard Shenstone, sent down from Cambridge under suspicion, is addicted to opium and troubled by disturbing desires. He seeks refuge in an old mansion with his impoverished mother and sister Effie, whose behavior becomes increasingly bizarre.
Threatening letters circulate, with nearly everyone a suspect in crimes ranging from vivisection to murder. Fans of Charles Palliser’s work, as well as readers of Sarah Waters and Michel Faber, will enjoy this first novel in over ten years. Hailed for his "mesmerizing, meticulous" fiction (Entertainment Weekly), Palliser remains "our leading contemporary Victorian novelist" (The Guardian).