The Gifts
The Gifts is an intriguing novel set in a mixture of gritty Victorian London and stunningly beautiful natural backdrops, with a dash of wildest fantasy thrown in. What if women grew impossible, beautiful wings? A scenario almost as unthinkable in Victorian England as a woman who would dress as a man to investigate the journalistic scoop of the century; or that the daughter of an enslaved woman might become a respected botanist; or that a surgeon from an obscure background might gain his fame and fortune through the gifts sent to him by God.
Told from five different perspectives, each set out in short, almost staccato chapters, The Gifts moves at almost breakneck pace. We are shown glimpses of different worlds: the haunting wild beauty of the Orkneys, the gentler loveliness of the English countryside; the make-believe perfection of the Victorian middle classes; the gore-soaked horror of the surgeon’s table; and the squalor and desperation of London’s poor.
It is a book which explores what might happen when the unthinkable takes place. Angels are spotted in London; the first dragged from the Thames, the second alive but bewildered. Wonder is quickly replaced by obsession and the need to possess; love and freedom are exchanged for prisons both real and metaphorical. But as well as horror, there is great beauty; as well as madness and death, kindness, independence and happiness emerge.
The Gifts is an enjoyable, thought-provoking and entertaining novel which explores a number of important themes while remaining a lively and fast-paced story.
