The Apple : New Crimson Petal Stories

Take a saunter down Silver Street once more for an early Christmas encounter with the determined heroine of The Crimson Petal and the White, and find out more of what became of her.

In this collection, Michel Faber revisits the world of his bestselling novel, briefly opening doors onto the lives of its characters to give us tantalising glimpses of where they sprang from and what happened to them.

All of us can vividly remember The Crimson Petal and the White, Michel Faber’s compelling historical novel released in 2002. In it we came to know Sugar, the alluring nineteen-year-old in Mrs Castaway’s brothel, and followed her rise through 1870s London society. The Crimson Petal was not only a wonderful story, it created an entire, extraordinary world.

Now, with the wonderful new stories in The Apple, Michel Faber has opened the door once again onto that world, and takes us into the lives of the characters we came to love.

Praise for The Apple:

‘Faber is an astonishing versatile and clever writer…this book will be read in a sitting. Unless of course you are admitted to Accident and Emergency, having come over queer, huffing with laughter, or dizzy with envy at Faber’s talent. Or probably both.’

‘It’s a risky business for an author to revisit their best book, waking characters from their slumber just to see what they’ve been up to. It’s riskier still when that book happens to be The Crimson Petal and The White, that astonishing masterpiece of Victorian fiction re-imagined in the 21st century. So glorious was Michel Faber?s 835-page novel that any return to the lives of Sugar, William Rackham and the stench-ridden, degenerate city of 1870s London brings on an immediate bout of panic. What if it doesn?t live up to it? What if the characters are batter left alone? Fear not Faber has pulled it off. This collection?is an absolute delight?this superb collection makes you immediately want to take up its predecessor and devour it all over again.’
Scotland on Sunday

Scotsman

‘Faber remains an unrivalled master of his subject.’

Sunday Telegraph

‘Michel Faber is a master of the short-story form.’

Independent on Sunday

‘This is a man who would give Conrad a run at writing the perfect sentence.’

Guardian