Trade paperback format.

Oliver Twist with a twistWaters spins an absorbing tale that withholds as much as it discloses. A pulsating story.The New York Times Book Review

The Handmaiden, a film adaptation of Fingersmith, directed by Park Chan-wook and starring Kim Tae-Ri, is now available.

Sue Trinder is an orphan, left as an infant in the care of Mrs. Sucksby, a baby farmer, who raised her with unusual tenderness, as if Sue were her own. Mrs. Sucksbys household, with its fussy babies calmed with doses of gin, also hosts a transient family of petty thievesfingersmithsfor whom this house in the heart of a mean London slum is home.

One day, the most beloved thief of all arrivesGentleman, an elegant con man, who carries with him an enticing proposition for Sue: If she wins a position as the maid to Maud Lilly, a nave gentlewoman, and aids Gentleman in her seduction, then they will all share in Mauds vast inheritance. Once the inheritance is secured, Maud will be disposed ofpassed off as mad, and madeto live out the rest of her days in a lunatic asylum.

With dreams of paying back the kindness of her adopted family, Sue agrees to the plan. Once in, however, Sue begins to pity her helpless mark and care for Maud Lilly in unexpected waysBut no one and nothing is as it seems in this Dickensian novel of thrills and reversals.