An Almond for a Parrot

March 13, 2017
In this page-turning tale of one woman’s quest for happiness, Delaney takes readers to 18th-century London, opening with a framing scene in which Tully Truegood, a courtesan with magical powers, awaits trial for a murdering her husband. In the first person, Tully details her difficult upbringing with her dreadful father, who treats Tully as more of a servant than a daughter as she is forced to clean up after her father’s drunken friends. Mr. Truegood further proves his evil nature when he forces her to marry when she is only 12. As Tully grows older and her absent husband leaves her without money, she meets Mr. Crease, who recognizes her powers, and Queenie, who runs a brothel and grooms Tully to become her latest courtesan. Tully has the misfortune to fall in love with Avery Fitzjohn, who makes love to her and then leaves her to marry a French heiress in order to save his destitute family. When Tully finds a new protector in Lord Barbeau, she learns about her power as a woman and her fortitude to make her way in the world. Despite being charged with the murder of her husband, Tully continues to hope that she will avoid being hanged. Delaney’s novel is rich with historical detail, eroticism, and magic.

Starred review from February 15, 2017

As the only child of a drunken, widowed brick merchant Tully Truegood is left to raise herself; her only human contact is the cook--small wonder that a solitary, imaginative child becomes fanciful. Even Tully's sudden marriage to a masked stranger at age 12 brings no companionship as her "husband" is immediately sent to sea and, as the cook prophesies, with any luck Tully will be a widow before she ever sees him again. This gray existence ends abruptly with her father's second marriage, bringing vivid life and love in the form of a colorful, ebullient stepmother and two intriguing stepsisters who vanish as quickly as they come, only to reappear in mysterious circumstances as owners of Georgian London's premier brothel. There Tully is trained as a courtesan; a magician recognizing her otherworldly gifts, turns her into the toast of London, pursued by a series of men who bring love, enlightenment, degradation, and confinement in Newgate Prison on charges of murder. VERDICT This richly imagined, bawdy, and beautifully written debut is Daniel Defoe's Moll Flanders with a touch of magical realism, an intricately crafted mystery, romance, and adventure in one superb package.--Cynthia Johnson, formerly with Cary Memorial Lib., Lexington, MA

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