Zadie Smith is one of my favourite authors and it pains me to give her latest offering a run-of-the-mill rating, but for me this book was only okay. It often struggled to capture my attention, and then when I *was* caught, it would then shift to another perspective or a time jump and I'd have to reacclimate all over again. 

I read quite a lot of historical fiction, but I've never read anything featuring the Tichborne claimant (or even heard of him before now!) so I'm grateful to Smith for introducing me to this fascinating little piece of history. I also appreciated how she wove in the slave trade, sugar plantations, abolition in the UK, politics and race relations. It's a very rich novel, and there's a lot to gain from it for sure. It also features Charles Dickens as a character (with plenty of shade) so there is that if you're a Dickens fan. 

I would have loved to spend more time with Andrew Bogle, as his parts were among the most compelling. I did like Eliza's voice as well, and was pleasantly surprised to find a little kernel of queerness in there. The Fraud is very much a 19th century novel - in terms of emulating the style of that century, and of course the subject matter. For my brain right now, not ideal, but there we are!