Poor Things : Read the extraordinary book behind the award-winning film

Author: Gray, Alasdair

Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945)

Published on 24 August 2023 by Bloomsbury Publishing PLC in the United Kingdom.

WINNER OF FOUR ACADEMY AWARDS, FIVE BAFTAS, and TWO GOLDEN GLOBES. STARRING EMMA STONE, FROM THE DIRECTOR OF THE FAVOURITEWinner of the Whitbread Novel Award and the Guardian Fiction PrizeA life without freedom to choose is not worth having.

Godwin Baxter's scientific ambition to create the perfect companion is realised when he finds the drowned body of the beautiful Bella, who he brings back to life in a Frankenstein-esque feat. But his dream is thwarted by Dr. Archibald McCandless's jealous love for his creation . . .

But what does Bella think?This story of true love and scientific daring whirls the reader from the private operating-theatres of late-Victorian Glasgow through aristocratic casinos, low-life Alexandria and a Parisian bordello, reaching an interrupted climax in a Scottish church.

'A magnificently brisk, funny, dirty, brainy book' London Review of Books'Visionary, ornate and outrageous' The Independent'Witty and delightfully written' New York Times'A brilliant marriage of technique, intelligence, and art.' Kirkus Reviews'The greatest Scottish novelist since Sir Walter Scott' Anthony Burgess'Those who, like me, are unsure if they are Alasdair Gray fans or not, ought to fall on Poor Things with delight, and not just because of the almost excessive beauty of its appearance' Philip Hensher, Spectator