Louisa Treger's debut novel, The Lodger, opens in 1906. Family tragedy has left Dorothy Richardson living hand-to-mouth. She is relieved when Jane, an old friend, extends an invitation to visit her country estate for a weekend of relaxation. Jane has recently married an up-and-coming writer, H.G. Wells. Bertie, as he is called, turns out to be a strong personality, and Dorothy is not sure at first whether she is attracted or repelled. The comfort of an intellectual who listens seriously to her ideas, however, proves irresistible, and between arguing about science and admiring Bertie's writing, Dorothy finds herself helplessly falling for the husband of her best and oldest friend.
Dorothy is then torn between her hard-won independence, which she feels is worth the high price of poverty, and her love for a man who needs more of her than she can give. When the beautiful Veronica Leslie-Jones moves into Dorothy's boarding house in London and becomes a singular new friend, Dorothy's energies and loyalties are still more divided. Writing becomes the outlet for her pain; Bertie has long encouraged her to make such an effort but, fittingly, Dorothy discovers this outlet, and her talent, on her own terms and schedule.
The Lodger is based on the real life of Dorothy Richardson, a groundbreaking but little-known author of the early 20th century. Treger's taut evocation of Dorothy's life and emotional struggles is gripping from the very first page, and readers are thrust into Bertie's overwhelming presence just as helplessly and thoroughly as Dorothy is. --Julia Jenkins, librarian and blogger at pagesofjulia