An enchanting story about love, loss and the power of language, what gets recorded and what gets forgotten. Set at a time when women’s voices were clamouring more than ever to be heard, it moved me greatly to think how history is skewed by those who hold power — and how important it is that novels like this redress that balance — Elizabeth Macneal, author or The Doll Factory

A brilliant book about women and words – tender, moving and profound — Jacqueline Wilson

What a novel of words, their adventure and their capacity to define and, above all, challenge the world. There will not be this year a more original novel published. I just know it — Thomas Keneally

I absolutely loved this book! Thought-provoking, touching and subtly romantic; I finished it in tears — Katie Fforde

Inspired by a wisp of fact – a single word accidentally omitted from the Oxford English Dictionary – Pip Williams has spun a marvelous fiction about the power of language to elevate or repress. This is a novel that brings to light not only lost words, but the lost stories of women’s lives. It is at once timely and timeless.