October 1840. A young woman staggers alone through a forest in the English countryside as a huge pair of impossible wings rip themselves from her shoulders. In London, rumors of a fallen angel cause a frenzy across the city, and 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 an astonishing novel, a spellbinding tale 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.
Tuppence Middleton transports listeners to Victorian England with her sublime narration of this story of four women and the man who may destroy them all. An unidentified woman's body, with wings attached, is pulled from the Thames. Soon after, two other winged women are found. A young scientist, desperate to make a name for himself, will capture and exploit these women, risking his marriage and ev
