Introduction

Shortlisted for the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction

“Wonderful… completely transporting.”  —Madeline Miller, New York Times bestselling author of Circe and The Song of Achilles

In 1780s London, a prosperous merchant finds his quiet life upended when he unexpectedly receives a most unusual creature—and meets a most extraordinary woman—in this much-lauded, atmospheric debut that examines our capacity for wonder, obsession, and desire with all the magnetism, originality, and literary magic of The Essex Serpent.

One September evening in 1785, Jonah Hancock hears an urgent knocking on his front door near the docks of London. The captain of one of Jonah’s trading vessels is waiting eagerly on the front step, bearing shocking news. On a voyage to the Far East, he sold the Jonah’s ship for something rare and far more precious: a mermaid. Jonah is stunned—the object the captain presents him is brown and wizened, as small as an infant, with vicious teeth and claws, and a torso that ends in the tail of a fish. It is also dead.

As gossip spreads through the docks, coffee shops, parlors and brothels, all of London is curious to see this marvel in Jonah Hancock’s possession. Thrust from his ordinary existence, somber Jonah finds himself moving from the city’s seedy underbelly to the finest drawing rooms of high society. At an opulent party, he makes the acquaintance of the coquettish Angelica Neal, the most desirable woman he has ever laid eyes on—and a shrewd courtesan of great accomplishment. This meeting sparks a perilous liaison that steers both their lives onto a dangerous new course as they come to realize that priceless things often come at the greatest cost.

Imogen Hermes Gowar, Britain’s most-heralded new literary talent, makes her debut with this spellbinding novel of a merchant, a mermaid, and a madam—an unforgettable confection that explores obsession, wonder, and the deepest desires of the heart with bawdy wit, intrigue, and a touch of magic.

Editorial Review

An Amazon Best Book of September 2018: For those of you who didn’t think, “You had me at mermaid,” neither did I! But I’m so glad I read Imogen Hermes Gowar’s The Mermaid and Mrs. Hancock or I would have missed one of the most delicious debuts of 2018. A Georgian romp reminiscent of Sarah Waters’s wonderfully bawdy Victorian-era novels, it follows the unlikely courtship of a celebrated courtesan and a decidedly undazzling merchant. The latter has come into a windfall, owing to the sale of a deceased merbaby (just go with it—the writing is that good), but it turns out that their union isn’t just reliant on the size of his…wallet. The Mermaid and Mrs. Hancock is a treat of a read with clever, immersive dialog and enough twists and turns to make you wish the word count was even more generous (it's 496 pages). But it also slyly scrutinizes class, gender, and race divides—adding a layer of depth to a novel that is hopefully the first of many for Ms. Gowar. —Erin Kodicek, Amazon Book Review

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