'One of the best novels I have read this year. It's deft, funny, poignant, surprising and beautifully shaped.' Margaret Atwood

Mary Swann, a latter-day Emily Dickinson, submitted a paper bag of poems to a newspaper editor mere hours before her death at her husband's hands. Works of genius can come from extraordinary places. A feminist scholar, a librarian, a biographer and a publisher all try to piece together the story behind her life and work in this teasing, inventive and beautiful novel.