Fingersmith by Sarah Waters

Waters' first truly great novel is a gloriously Dickensian web of deceit and romance, played out by characters so full of life that it's impossible not to become drawn in. This is sensuous, shocking and full-blooded story-telling.

Synopsis by Foyles.co.uk

'We were all more or less thieves at Lant Street. But we were that kind of thief that rather eased the dodgy deed along, than did it . We could pass anything, anything at all, at speeds which would astonish you. There was only one thing, in fact, that had come and got stuck - one thing that had somehow withstood the tremendous pull of that passage - one thing that never had a price put to it. I mean of course, Me.' Sue Trinder, orphaned at birth, is born among petty thieves - fingersmiths - in London's Borough. From the moment she draws breath, her fate is linked to another orphan, growing up in a gloomy mansion not too many miles away ...A modern day Dickens, Sarah Waters is one of Britain's rising stars.