#TwoForTuesday: Liz Hyder @LondonBessie @ZaffreBooks #TheGifts #TheIllusions #LizHyder #BookclubReads

Good morning everyone today on Two For Tuesday I’m featuring two books by the lovely Liz Hyder.

I read The Gifts a while ago and absolutely loved it so I was very excited to learn she had a new one coming out. This was particularly so as The Illusions is about the early illusionists which have always intrigued me.

I run the bookclub for Rossiter Books in Malvern and The Illusions is our February book club read. I was very excited to learn Liz lives near Malvern and she has agreed to come talk to us as our next book club! I can’t wait to learn more about her book and about the illusionists.

Q: If you could do magic, what would you use it for?
A: I’d use it to summon things to me. The amount of times I’ve left things upstairs or forgotten my tea in the kitchen when I’ve just sat down – it would be useful 🤣

The Illusions by Liz Hyder

What if you had real magic within you . . . ?

The utterly spellbinding new novel from the celebrated author of THE GIFTS

1896. As a group of illusionists prepare for a grand spectacle, one young woman, Cecily Marsden, harbours a secret. For she possesses impossible powers – powers she little understands.

Meanwhile Eadie Carleton, a pioneering early film-maker, struggles for her talent to be taken seriously, and a talented magician, George Perris, begins to see the potential in moving pictures. But in order to achieve his dreams, George must first win over Miss Carleton . . .

As Cecily, George and Eadie’s worlds collide, Cec finds herself facing the fight of her life to save the grand performance from sabotage – and harness the real magic held deep within her . . .

The Gifts by Liz Hyder

It will take something extraordinary to show four women who they truly are . . .

October 1840. A young woman staggers alone through a forest in Shropshire as a huge pair of impossible wings rip themselves from her shoulders.

Meanwhile, when rumours of a ‘fallen angel’ cause a frenzy across London, a surgeon desperate for fame and fortune finds himself in the grips of a dangerous obsession, one that will place the women he seeks in the most terrible danger . . .

THE GIFTS is the astonishing debut adult novel from the lauded author of BEARMOUTH. A gripping and ambitious book told through five different perspectives and set against the luminous backdrop of nineteenth century London, it explores science, nature and religion, enlightenment, the role of women in society and the dark danger of ambition.

About The Author:

Liz Hyder has been making up stories for as long she can remember. Bearmouth, her debut young adult novel, won a Waterstones Children’s Book Prize, the Branford Boase Award, and was chosen as the Children’s Book of the Year by The Times.

The Gifts, her acclaimed debut novel for grown-ups, was published in the UK in 2022 and in April 2023 in the US. The Illusions is out in June 2023 in hardback in the UK. Liz has a degree in drama from the University of Bristol and was, once upon a time, a member of the National Youth Theatre. Originally from London, she has lived in Shropshire for over a decade.