First published 2023
Dr Godwin Baxter performs an extraordinary experiment in late 19th century Glasgow. He resurrects the body of a young woman who drowned herself in the river, transplanting a child's brain into her skull. The reborn Bella must learn everything from scratch. She acquires language at remarkable speed and develops an insatiable appetite for knowledge, experience, and sexual pleasure. Bella refuses to submit to male authority or Victorian social constraints. Her journey takes her from Baxter's operating room through aristocratic gambling halls, the slums of Alexandria, and Parisian brothels, before arriving at a Scottish church altar. Yet this marks no true ending. Bella's lovers, husbands, and the devoted Baxter all struggle to contain her fierce independence. The story follows her transformation from scientific creation to autonomous woman who demands the freedom to choose her own path. Gray presents Bella's awakening as both personal liberation and political allegory, exploring the eternal conflict between male desire for control and female determination to live without constraints.
Genres: literary-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, fantasy, biographical-fiction, 19th-century
Vibes: dark, emotional, thought-provoking
Tropes: autonomous-woman, male-desire-for-control, scientific-creation
Setting: Alexandria, Glasgow, Paris, Scotland
Period: 19th Century, Late 19th Century
370 pages · Paperback · Poradnia K
Content warnings: body-horror, medical-trauma