The Warlow Experiment

By Alix Nathan,

Book cover of The Warlow Experiment

Book description

A Sunday Times fiction book of the year
'She is an original, with a virtuoso touch' - Hilary Mantel
'An extraordinary, quite brilliant book' - C. J. Sansom
'A powerful and unsettling novel' - Andrew Taylor

The year is 1793 and Herbert Powyss is set on making his name as…

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Warlow Experiment as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Author Alix Nathan discovered an advertisement in a 1797 publication: A scientist offered a reward of 50 pounds a year for life to a man who would live alone in an underground bunker for seven years.

As a writer, I was intrigued: How would the author portray the man who would propose such an experiment, and who in the world would subject himself to it? Nathan’s scientist is himself a social misfit, and the man who comes forward for his experiment is a poor laborer.

Some say that writing spoils one for reading, and I constantly find myself trying to…

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