Inspired by a true story, the novel tells the story of a girl of 16 years, Grace, accused of murdering her employer and housekeeper of the latter.
It's a trip back in time at which the author invites us.
It takes us from Ireland to Canada via the United States and all that, in the 19th century.
With Marks has experienced poverty and had to be placed very young as a maid in different homes.
We discover the daily lives of maids but also the morals of the time, the living conditions of domestic workers and those of their employers, and the glaring difference between the two.
Margaret Atwood also makes us discover medical advances, including advances in the field of psychiatry, Thanks for the subject of a study by a young psychiatrist.
It immerses us in social functions as well as in the laundry, she invites us to séances and mesmerism but also to entire days dedicated to the laundry of an entire family, it shows us life in prisons and asylums and the sweetest of "good" respectable house.
Extremely documented, this novel is exciting because it is all these small actions and gestures of everyday life that we learn more about people and an era of great speeches.
