Valerie Martin

Making his way through the seamy theatre world of 1970s New York, ambitious young actor Edward Day finds his life changed during a weekend at the Jersey Shore, where he seduces a beautiful woman and is saved from drowning by a mysterious man who eerily shares his physical appearance.

Manon Gaudet is unhappily married to the owner of a Louisiana sugar plantation. Whilst she misses her family in New Orleons, she most wants to be free of her domestic situation. A suffocating tension exists which revolves around Srah, a slave girl given to Manon as a wedding present. Orange/Baileys Prize.