Learned By Heart Av Emma Donoghue

<p><b>The heartbreaking story of the love of two women – Anne Lister, the real-life inspiration behind Gentleman Jack, and her first love, Eliza Raine – from the bestselling author of <i>Room</i> and <i>The Wonder</i>.<br><br>'A rich and spellbinding 19th-century story of forbidden love' – <i>The Independent</i><br><br>'Donoghue evokes a relationship that is convincing and exquisitely touching.' – <i>The Guardian</i></b><br><br>In 1805, at a boarding school in York, two fourteen-year-old girls first meet.<br><br>Eliza Raine, the orphan daughter of an Indian mother, keeps herself apart from the other girls, tired of being picked out for being different. Anne Lister, a gifted troublemaker, is determined to conquer the world, refusing to bow to society’s expectations of what a woman can do.<br><br>As

<p><b>Adding to the already moving, richly told and gripping collection of historical fiction from Emma Donoghue, <i>Learned By Heart </i>is the breathtaking story of two young girls on the margins of life, forging a connection that will last forever.</b><br><br><i>Eliza and Lister have never been this wide-awake in their lives, and the Slope, with its curtains drawn wide, is bright with starlight. They talk in whispers, not to disturb the maids who lie sleeping on the other side of the box room. The question Eliza&rsquo;s been needing to ask swells like a great berry in her mouth, and all at once she&rsquo;s not scared to let it out, not scared at all, not scared of anything . . .</i><br><br>In 1805 fourteen-year-old Eliza Raine is a school girl at the Manor School for Young Ladies in York. The daughter of an Indian mother and a British father, Eliza was banished to this unfamiliar country as a little girl. When she first stepped off the <i>King George</i> in Kent, Eliza was accompanied by her older sister, Jane, but now she boards alone at the Manor, with no one left to claim her. She spends her days avoiding the attention of her fellow pupils until, one day, a fearless and charismatic new student arrives at the school. The two girls are immediately thrown together and soon Eliza&rsquo;s life is turned inside out by this strange and curious young woman.<br><br><i>Learned by Heart</i>, Emma Donoghue&rsquo;s mesmerising new novel, tells the heartbreaking story of the tangled lives of two women whose intense, and unlikely, relationship will change them for ever.<br><br><b>One of BBC's Books of 2023.</b></p>