The Apple

Welcome back Sugar, the wily prostitute who turned her fortunes on their ear in The Crimson Petal and the White, and her colorful band of street urchins, miscreants, and ladies of the night from Faber's Victorian England. Responding to readers who begged him to resolve the uncertainties left at the end of that novel, Faber revives many of his principals and bit players while still leaving Sugar and her ward, Sophie, some mystery. These sparkling gems include "Clara and the Rat Man," in which a wary prostitute reluctantly agrees to perform an unsavory act while attending a match at a rat pit, and "A Mighty Horde of Women in Very Big Hats, Advancing," told from the perspective of a 92-year-old (Sophie's son) reminiscing over his unconventional youth, accompanying his parents on a historic march for woman's suffrage.