Australian-born Karen Brooks is the author of nine novels, an academic, a newspaper columnist and social comentator, and has appeared regularly on national TV and radio. Before turning to academia, she was an army officer, and dabbled in acting. She lives in Hobart, Tasmania.

A sweeping tale brimming with historical details and figures, including diarist Samuel Pepys, this sumptuous novel covers five eventful years that include a dreadful plague and the Great Fire of London. At the center is the charming, courageous Rosamund, whose spirit makes this novel a rich indulgence. — Booklist“Historian and novelist [Karen] Brooks shows her research and imaginative chops in a luscious and astonishingly affecting chronicle of family scandal, political unrest, and redemptive hope in 1660s London . . .readers will be pulled into the highs and lows of this novel’s personal drama and the sweep of its historical backdrop.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Australian-born Karen Brooks is the author of nine novels, an academic, a newspaper columnist and social comentator, and has appeared regularly on national TV and radio. Before turning to academia, she was an army officer, and dabbled in acting. She lives in Hobart, Tasmania.

A sweeping tale brimming with historical details and figures, including diarist Samuel Pepys, this sumptuous novel covers five eventful years that include a dreadful plague and the Great Fire of London. At the center is the charming, courageous Rosamund, whose spirit makes this novel a rich indulgence. — Booklist“Historian and novelist [Karen] Brooks shows her research and imaginative chops in a luscious and astonishingly affecting chronicle of family scandal, political unrest, and redemptive hope in 1660s London . . .readers will be pulled into the highs and lows of this novel’s personal drama and the sweep of its historical backdrop.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Australian-born Karen Brooks is the author of nine novels, an academic, a newspaper columnist and social comentator, and has appeared regularly on national TV and radio. Before turning to academia, she was an army officer, and dabbled in acting. She lives in Hobart, Tasmania.

A sweeping tale brimming with historical details and figures, including diarist Samuel Pepys, this sumptuous novel covers five eventful years that include a dreadful plague and the Great Fire of London. At the center is the charming, courageous Rosamund, whose spirit makes this novel a rich indulgence. — Booklist“Historian and novelist [Karen] Brooks shows her research and imaginative chops in a luscious and astonishingly affecting chronicle of family scandal, political unrest, and redemptive hope in 1660s London . . .readers will be pulled into the highs and lows of this novel’s personal drama and the sweep of its historical backdrop.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)