'Best book of the century.' Richard Osman'Just wonderful.' Jan Morris'A marvel.' Zadie Smith'Every bit as superb as everyone says.' Sarah Perry Winner of the Costa First Novel Award 2016Winner of the RSL Ondaatje Prize 2017Winner of the Desmond Elliott Prize 2017Shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction 2017Shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize 2017Shortlisted for the Authors' Club Best First Novel Award 2017Shortlisted for the British Book Awards Debut Novel of the Year 2017 A SUNDAY TIMES TOP 100 NOVEL OF THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY New York, a small town on the tip of Manhattan Island, 1746. One rainy evening, a charming and handsome young stranger fresh off the boat from England pitches up to a counting house on Golden Hill Street, with a suspicious yet compelling proposition -- he has an order for a thousand pounds in his pocket that he wishes to cash. But can he be trusted? This is New York in its infancy, a place where a young man with a fast tongue can invent himself afresh, fall in love, and find a world of trouble . . .