Sarah Waters was born in Wales in 1966. She has a PhD in English Literature and has taught at the Open University.
Genres: Historical, Horror
Novels
Tipping the Velvet (1998)
Affinity (1999)
Fingersmith (2002)
The Night Watch (2006)
The Little Stranger (2009)
The Paying Guests (2014)
Affinity (1999)
Fingersmith (2002)
The Night Watch (2006)
The Little Stranger (2009)
The Paying Guests (2014)
Anthologies edited
Awards
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Sarah Waters recommends

The Story of My Face (2002)
Kathy Page
"I can't remember the last time I was so compelled, impressed and unsettled by the emotional world of a novel."

The Book of Salt (2003)
Monique Truong
"The Book of Salt reminded me how thrilling really fine writing can be, and how rarely one sees it."

Footnotes to Sex (2009)
Mia Farlane
"A wonderfully impressive first novel: subtle, smart and very funny. I loved this book."

Charles Jessold, Considered as a Murderer (2010)
Wesley Stace
"A tremendously imaginative novel... beneath its sparkling surface there are some very murky depths. A wonderfully disquieting read."

Mr Fox (2011)
Helen Oyeyemi
"Mr Fox is a wonderfully original novel, full of images and turns of phrase so arresting, so vivid and inventive, its pages almost glow with them. Helen Oyeyemi has given us a work of playful charm and serious narrative pleasure."

This Burns My Heart (2011)
Samuel Park
"This Burns My Heart is a delicate yet powerful story of love, loss, and endurance. The emotional world of the heroine, Soo-Ja, is beautifully realized; I found myself caught up in her dramas from start to finish, and was reluctant to part with her at the novel's close. A lovely, romantic, haunting book."

A Station on the Path to Somewhere Better (2018)
Benjamin Wood
"Wood takes the passing, shabby details of mundane landscapes and makes them jitter and throb with yearning and menace. A Station on the Path to Somewhere Better is his best work yet - a novel written from the gut, and with a correspondingly visceral power. A superbly unsettling account of trauma and cautious recovery."

To Calais, In Ordinary Time (2019)
James Meek
"A glorious imaginative feat, full of complex, compelling, believable characters. Rarely have I been so captivated by a novel, so keen to hurry back to it and reimmerse myself in its world."

All Men Want to Know (2020)
Nina Bouraoui
"Intense, gorgeous, troubling, seductive - a novel that has to be surrendered to rather than read."

Plain Bad Heroines (2020)
Emily M Danforth
"Brimming from start to finish with sly humor and gothic mischief, Plain Bad Heroines is a brilliant piece of exuberant storytelling by a terrifically talented author."

Before The Ruins (2021)
Victoria Gosling
"Engrossing, beguiling, and with an undertow of menace, Before the Ruins is a masterly debut from a richly talented author."

Last Night at the Telegraph Club (2021)
(Last Night at the Telegraph Club)
Malinda Lo
"Lo's writing, restrained yet luscious, shimmers with the thrills of youthful desire. A lovely, memorable novel about listening to the whispers of a wayward heart and claiming a place in the world."

Scary Monsters (2022)
Michelle de Kretser
"In Scary Monsters de Kretser addresses the weightiest of subjects with the lightest and deftest of touches, and the result is funny, playful, painful, angry, and, above all, ferociously smart. It's a dazzling novel, by a hugely talented author."

The Exhibitionist (2022)
Charlotte Mendelson
"In The Exhibitionist Mendelson brings a forensic eye to family dynamics, laying bare the agonies of rage, frustration and longing that lie just beneath the surface of domestic life. The result is a devastating treat of a novel: funny, furious, dark and delicious."

Our Wives Under the Sea (2022)
Julia Armfield
"A wonderful novel, deeply romantic and fabulously strange. I loved this book."

Non-Fiction (2022)
Julie Myerson
"Myerson writes with devastating clarity about the most complex and troubling of emotions. Nonfiction is painful, powerful, and utterly compelling."
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