Sara Collins’ debut novel, The Confessions of Frannie Langton, is simultaneously the heir to Sarah Waters and Toni Morrison that I’m always looking for, and also a completely new voice and incandescent love story I didn’t know I needed.
The person of slave-turned-English lady’s maid, Frannie, that Collins brings to life is so passionate and singular, I followed along breathlessly as much for her voice and keen vision of the her world (a world bent on destroying her) as to untangle the horrible crimes at the heart of her life. This is literary historical fiction at its best: a portrayal of an ostensibly different time and place that catches the reader off-guard with its immediacy and familiarity of human experience. To boot, Frannie and Marguerite’s love story is the most dazzling and unforgettable I’ve encountered in a very long time.