From the author of Mere , Danielle Giles, comes the thrilling tale of deceit and danger in Gentle Things . London, 1668. Though the streets hum with promise following the restoration of the crown, Lucy North is trapped. Her father''s recent death has left her mother saddled with debts she cannot pay. Lucy must marry the first man willing to take her without a dowry. She has no choice. Then she meets Thomas Ashwell, a young and charming apothecary, who offers her a route out. Lucy is quick to fall in love, and when Thomas proposes she has no hesitation in accepting him. But, on the eve of her wedding, Lucy falls and injures her head. Confined to her bedroom while surrendering to the care of her concerned fiancee, Lucy''s world soon starts to take on a warped, dreamlike - or nightmarish - quality. Her internal voice no longer sounds like her; a stranger has somehow entered her mind. As her husband continues to press his cures on her, has Thomas made her dreams come true, or has he brought about a nightmare? Can she really trust this man?

Autorentext

Danielle Giles is a writer and researcher based in Bristol. She has been published (writing as Danielle Vrublevskis) in Extra Teeth and Dear Damsels, shortlisted for the Bristol Short Story Prize and the Brick Lane Bookshop Short Story Prize and longlisted for the Galley Beggar Press Short Story Prize. She won the Local Prize in the 2023 Bath Short Story Award. Mere, her debut novel, was published by Mantle in 2025. Gentle Things is her second novel.

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'Gentle Things is a daring and devouring gothic gem of a novel' - Lucy Rose, bestselling author of The Lamb

The plague has passed, the fire has cooled, and Lucy North is in desperate need of a husband . . . From the acclaimed author of Mere comes a thrilling new tale of medicine, marriage and madness set in seventeenth-century London.

London, 1668. Though the streets hum with promise following the restoration of the crown, Lucy North is trapped. Her father's recent death has left her mother saddled with debts she cannot pay. Lucy must marry the first man willing to take her without a dowry.

So when she meets Thomas Ashwell, a young and charming apothecary, Lucy quickly identifies an attractive route out. She falls in love easily, and when Thomas proposes she believes her future is finally secured.

But when Lucy falls and injures her head during their wedding party, things start to warp. Confined to her bedroom her dreams refuse to leave her at daybreak, and the voice in her head no longer sounds like her own. As Thomas plies her with tinctures and cures, a creeping fear takes root: Has this marriage saved her? Or will it bring about her end?

'One of the best things I've read in ages' - Liam Higginson, author of The Hill in the Dark Grove

'A stunning fever dream of a book . . . one of my favourite books of 2026 so far' - Cathryn Kemp, author of A Poisoner's Tale