In 1860s London, by the age of seventeen, Sue is an expert thief and muses on the idea of becoming a baby farmer, like her beloved Mrs Sucksby – the caregiver who took in the infant Sue when her murderess mother was hanged.

The narrator, Susan Trinder, speaks of her makeshift ‘family ‘of thieves who live in the Borough – a collection of narrow and labyrinthine streets that seem ideally constructed for the conducting of petty crimes and scams. 'Fingersmith' is a writhing, twisting narrative of thieves, orphans, riches and poverty, murder and deception.

Once in, however, Sue begins to pity her helpless mark and care for Maud Lilly in unexpected ways.But no one and nothing is as it seems in this Dickensian novel of thrills and reversals. With dreams of paying back the kindness of her adopted family, Sue agrees to the plan. Once the inheritance is secured, Maud will be disposed of-passed off as mad, and made to live out the rest of her days in a lunatic asylum. One day, the most beloved thief of all arrives-Gentleman, 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 naïve gentlewoman, and aids Gentleman in her seduction, then they will all share in Maud’s vast inheritance. Sucksby’s household, with its fussy babies calmed with doses of gin, also hosts a transient family of petty thieves-fingersmiths-for whom this house in the heart of a mean London slum is home. Sucksby, a 'baby farmer,' who raised her with unusual tenderness, as if Sue were her own. Sue Trinder is an orphan, left as an infant in the care of Mrs. 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. “Oliver Twist with a twist…Waters spins an absorbing tale that withholds as much as it discloses.

Sarah waters handmaiden