Slipper

I first read Hester Velmans' work when she translated Renate Dorrestein's novel The Darkness That Divides Us. Slipper is her own original novel and I love the concept of imagining Cinderella as a 'real' historical woman, Lucinda, whose turns of fortune could have inspired the Charles Perrault fairytale. This story is far removed from the later Disney incarnation, thank goodness! Instead we are returned to a period in Western European history when France and England are (again) at war with each other, people are regularly tortured and killed as a result of witchcraft accusations, and ethics are judged by their profitability. Velmans' dark portrayal evokes the attitudes and beliefs of the time in an shocking and authentic way. I understood I was reading a historical novel, yet delighted in spotting not only elements of Cinderella, but also nods to lots of other famous fairytales along the way.

Lucinda is a brilliantly imagined character who we follow from neglected child to world-weary woman. I appreciated seeing how she changes in response to events in her life. Slipper focuses on womens lives and cleverly manages to believably show a wide range of roles and social classes without any of the story's twists and turns feeling forced. I was impressed that Velmans got me caring deeply about Lucinda's life story even though I didn't particularly like her to begin with. I could certainly sympathise by the end. To my mind, Slipper is a memorably unusual retelling of the Cinderella fairytale and a satisfying historical fiction novel too.