Emma Tennant — The Bad Sister

Canongate Books 2000 Paperback, 385pp. This omnibus edition brings together for the first time three of Tennant's most acclaimed works, all of which share a spiritual affinity. The Bad Sister and Two Women of London retell two Scottish masterpieces of the macabre - James Hogg's The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner and Stevenson's Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - resetting their claustrophobic and terrifying examinations of duality in the contemporary environment of London through female protagonists. The third book, Wild Nights, is a tour de force of descriptive writing as well as a tale of old love and family friction, and completes a trilogy of immense power and enduring value. (ISBN: 9781841950532). Good.