The Household

From the Sunday Times bestseller and winner of the Women’s Prize Futures Award, the captivating, highly anticipated new novel from Stacey Halls.

In a quiet house in the countryside outside London, the finishing touches are being made to welcome a group of young women. The house and its location are top secret, its residents unknown to one another, but the girls have one thing in common: they are fallen. Offering refuge for prostitutes, petty thieves and the destitute, Urania Cottage is a second chance at life – but how badly do they want it?

Nearing the end of her prison term, Josephine Nash accepts an invitation to live at Urania to please the woman she loves, but finds herself arriving alone and heartbroken. There she meets Martha Gelder, who is eager for a fresh start, but is soon dealt a devastating blow that causes her to question her future.

A few miles away in a Piccadilly mansion, millionairess Angela Burdett-Coutts makes a discovery that leaves her cold: her stalker of 10 years has been released from prison, and is intent on revenge . . .

As the three women’s worlds collide in ways they could never have expected, they find that freedom always comes at a price . . .