Rent Old Filth

Synopsis

The recently widowed septuagenarian Sir Edward "Filth" Feathers seemingly lived a dutiful and dull life as a judge in British Hong Kong. (His nickname "Filth" is an acronym for Failed In London, Try Hong Kong.) But as, in fits and starts, Filth’s childhood experiences flash through his weakening brain, the reader begin to realize the hidden traumas, passions, and secrets buried in the old man’s mind. Abandoned by his drunken father at an early age, Filth was raised in Malaya by a loving girl, but at the age of four, he was shipped to England to live under the sadistic rule of a foster mother Ma Didds. Roused by his memories, Filth begins an expedition to find his foster sister Babbs, who has gone half-mad; along the way, the novel reveals the dark secret of how Filth and Babbs ended the tyranny of Ma Didds. Jane Gardam, two-time Whitbread winner and Man Booker finalist, has, in her 15th novel, created a masterpiece of character: a lost soul trapped beneath the wreckage of age and the stifling mores of the British Empire. The numerous and colorful people populating Filth’s life are as rich, profound, and tragic as the old man himself.

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