The Fraud

What makes it funny?

Ainsworth's library is so heavy that the floor gives way beneath it. Eliza's dry responses to the workman turn a structural problem into a judgment on her employer's literary output. Looking after the author also means scanning newspapers for other writers' successes that might upset him.

The comedy at work

Smith shifts between Eliza's skeptical judgments and a young workman's practical view of an impressive household. Faced with pictures of Venice, Joseph wonders how anyone tiles steps underwater. Literary prestige and cultivated manners look different to the people who must manage egos or repair floors.

Try this if…

The appeal includes prickly literary company and a woman unimpressed by its reputation. Readers interested in who gets believed, who gets to tell a story and how class shapes those decisions have more to follow than the courtroom claim alone.

Good to know

Short scenes move across time, from the trial and Eliza's memories to Bogle's ancestry and life under enslavement. Racism, sexual relationships, BDSM references and strong profanity accompany the literary satire.