It's here! Browse the 2024 Penguin Christmas gift guide
The Darkness of Wallis Simpson

The Darkness of Wallis Simpson

Summary

A masterful collection of short stories from the prize-winning and bestselling Rose Tremain.

Wallis Simpson, the twice-divorced American for whom Edward Vlll abdicated the throne, is on her deathbed in her Paris flat, closely guarded by her lawyer who will not allow her any visitors. An East German border guard, redundant after the fall of the Berlin Wall, tries to reach Russia by bicycling across the hostile wastes of Poland.A jilted man gets his revenge. A baby grows wings. A character in an Impressionist painting escapes from his ‘frame’ – or does he?

‘Moving and tragic... The darkness of Rose Tremain is never far from the surface in this brilliantly written short story collection’ Daily Express

‘Classic, breathtaking Tremain’ Independent on Sunday, Books of the Year

‘Mordantly perceptive tales’ Sunday Times

Reviews

  • Classic, breathtaking Tremain
    Independent on Sunday, Books of the Year

About the author

Rose Tremain

Rose Tremain's novels and short stories have been published in thirty countries and have won many awards, including the Orange Prize (The Road Home), the Dylan Thomas Award (The Colonel's Daughter and Other Stories), the Whitbread Novel of the Year (Music & Silence) the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the Prix Femina in France (Sacred Country) and the South Bank Sky Arts Award (The Gustav Sonata). Her most recent novel is Lily, a Richard and Judy Book Club selection. Rose Tremain was made a CBE in 2007 and a Dame in 2020. She lives in Norfolk and London with the biographer, Richard Holmes.
Learn More

Sign up to the Penguin Newsletter

For the latest books, recommendations, author interviews and more