The Dance of the Dolls -- Lucy Ashe, Hardcover

A novel about obsessive love featuring two ballet dancers--identical twin sisters Olivia and Clara Marionetta--with a terrifying climax set in the world of ballet in pre-war London.
The Dance of the Dolls tells the story of identical twin ballerinas rehearsing for Coppélia at the recently opened Sadler's Wells Theatre. Superficially, even their differences are complementary: Olivia aspires to be the perfect ballerina while Clara is rebellious and independent. Clara takes up a relationship with the bohemian and passionate Nathan, a pianist at the theater. Meanwhile, Olivia is unaware that she has cast a spell on another frequent visitor to Sadler's Wells: Samuel, a bashful apprentice ballet shoemaker who steals into the building as often as he can to watch her dance. But as the sisters rehearse, danger lurks. The story of Coppélia and the dancing doll threatens to become a dark and sinister reality. Olivia becomes jealous of Nathan's adoration of Clara, while Clara discovers that being adored can feel suffocating. Samuel dreams of being recognized by Olivia and wonders how far he would go to achieve his goal, while Nathan, a musical child prodigy, struggles to adapt to adulthood and begins to blur the lines between reality and his dark fantasy world . . .

Author: Lucy Ashe
Publisher: Union Square & Co.
Published: 09/05/2023
Pages: 352
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.55lbs
Size: 9.06h x 5.91w x 1.42d
ISBN: 9781454951230

Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 07/03/2023
Booklist 07/28/2023

About the Author
Lucy Ashe is an English teacher at a school in London. After training at the Royal Ballet School, she decided to change career plans and go to university. She studied English literature at St. Hugh's College, Oxford, before receiving her teaching qualification. Ashe's poetry and short stories have been published in a number of literary journals, and she was shortlisted for the 2020 Impress Prize for New Writers.