The heartbreaking story of the love of two women - Anne Lister, the real-life inspiration behind Gentleman Jack, and her first love, Eliza Raine - from the bestselling author of Room and The Wonder.

'A rich and spellbinding 19th-century story of forbidden love' - Independent

'Donoghue evokes a relationship that is convincing and exquisitely touching.' - The Guardian

In 1805, at a boarding school in York, two fourteen-year-old girls first meet.

Eliza Raine, the orphan daughter of an Indian mother, keeps herself apart from the other girls, tired of being picked out for being different. Anne Lister, a gifted troublemaker, is determined to conquer the world, refusing to bow to society's expectations of what a woman can do.

As they fall in love, the connection they forge will remain with them for the rest of their lives.