Alix Nathan: The Warlow Experiment [2019] hardback

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A Sunday Times fiction book of the yearA Times Book of the YearA Daily Mail Historical Book of the Year'An extraordinary, quite brilliant book' - C. J. Sansom'Original and gripping ' - The Times'Powerful and unsettling' - Andrew Taylor'Engrossing ... compelling' - The Sunday Times'Powerful, imaginative' - Literary ReviewWhat kind of person keeps a man underground for seven years?And who would agree to be part of such an experiment?Herbert Powyss lives on a small estate in the Welsh Marches, with enough time and income to pursue a gentleman's fashionable cultivation of exotic plants and trees. But he longs to make his mark in the field of science - something consequential enough to present to the Royal Society in London.He hits on a radical experiment in isolation: for seven years a subject will inhabit three rooms in the cellar of the manor house, fitted out with books, paintings and even a chamber organ. Meals will arrive thrice daily via a dumbwaiter. The solitude will be totally unrelieved by any social contact; the subject will keep a diary of his daily thoughts and actions. The pay? Fifty pounds per annum, for life.Only one man is desperate enough to apply for the job: John Warlow, a semi-literate labourer with a wife and six children to provide for. The experiment, a classic Enlightenment exercise gone more than a little mad, will have unforeseen consequences for all included. In this seductive tale of self-delusion and obsession, Alix Nathan has created an utterly transporting historical novel which is both elegant and unforgettably sinister.BBC History Magazine Best Historical Fiction of 2019 Show more