The Paying Guests
Sarah Waters's The Paying Guests (2014) is a sapphic fiction and historical fiction novel. It deals with Hospitality, widows, guests and boardinghouses.
Open Library readers give it an average of 3.8 out of 5 from 4 ratings, and 46 more have it on their want-to-read list. It has been published in 7 editions. It appeared on the New York Times Hardcover Fiction bestseller list in 2014.
It runs to roughly 571 pages — 10–11 hours of reading at an average pace.
About The Paying Guests
It is 1922, and London is tense. Ex-servicemen are disillusioned, the out-of-work and the hungry are demanding change. And in South London, in a genteel Camberwell villa, a large silent house now bereft of brothers, husband and even servants, life is about to be transformed, as impoverished widow Mrs Wray and her spinster daughter, Frances, are obliged to take in lodgers. For with the arrival of Lilian and Leonard Barber, a modern young couple of the ‘clerk class’, the routines of the house will be shaken up in unexpected ways. And as passions mount and frustration gathers, no one can foresee just how far-reaching, and how devastating, the disturbances will be. This is vintage Sarah Waters: beautifully described with excruciating tension, real tenderness, believable characters, and surprises. It is above all a wonderful, compelling story.
Awards & lists
- ✦Lambda Literary Awards 2015 — Lesbian Fiction (nominee)
- 📰New York Times bestseller list — Hardcover Fiction, 2014
Quick answers
Who wrote The Paying Guests?
The Paying Guests was written by Sarah Waters and first published in 2014.
What genre is The Paying Guests?
It is usually shelved as Lesbian & Sapphic Fiction and Historical Fiction.
How long is The Paying Guests?
The median edition has 571 pages, about 10–11 hours of reading at 250 words per minute.
What books are similar to The Paying Guests?
Readers who like it often enjoy Mémoires d'Hadrien, The Color Purple and Stone Butch Blues.
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