Learned By Heart

The heartbreaking story of the love of two women – Anne Lister, the real-life inspiration behind Gentleman Jack, and her first love, Eliza Raine – from the bestselling author of Room and The Wonder.


In 1805, at a boarding school in York, two fourteen-year-old girls first meet.

Eliza Raine, the orphan daughter of an Indian mother, keeps herself apart from the other girls, tired of being picked out for being different. Anne Lister, a gifted troublemaker, is determined to conquer the world, refusing to bow to society’s expectations of what a woman can do.

As they fall in love, the connection they forge will remain with them for the rest of their lives.

Full of passion and heartbreak, evocative and wholly unique, Learned by Heart is a beautiful and moving historical novel from acclaimed author Emma Donoghue.

Shortlisted for the Atwood Gibson Prize

Review

Donoghue's prose is beautiful and beautifully controlled. Simply and without a shred of sentimentality, she evokes a relationship that is convincing and exquisitely touching. ― The Guardian

The historical setting comes alive in glorious detail . . . over the course of this enthralling novel. ― The Irish Times

Offers a refreshing perspective on a celebrated figure in LGBTQ+ history ― Sunday Express

Set against a vividly realised 1800s England, this spellbinding novel is a stunning character exploration that will move even the steeliest of readers. -- Armistead Maupin, Attitude

Donoghue has created a gripping story of the blistering connection between Anne and Eliza Raine . . . This is richly told and built on meticulous research. ― Sainsbury's Magazine

Emma Donoghue’s writing is superb alchemy -- Audrey Niffenegger, author of The Time Traveler’s Wife

Donoghue delights in the intensity of girlhood . . . The book wears its painstaking research like the light shifts the schoolgirls sleep in. ― Financial Times

Donoghue is a superb stylist – her prose is stirring and tender ― The Sunday Times

She can do everything: be funny, be moving, be unflinching yet sensitive, write beautifully nuanced sentences and utterly gripping stories. She can write powerful historical fiction and be absolutely contemporary. And she’s unable to write a line you don't believe -- Joseph O’Connor, author of Star of the Sea

Emma Donoghue is a genius of compassion. With her, the ethical imagination is always paramount. In our fractured world she brings a great sense of repair to us all. Her stories bind us back together -- Colum McCann, internationally bestselling author of Let the Great World Spin

About the Author

Born in Dublin in 1969, and now living in Canada, Emma Donoghue writes fiction (novels and short stories, contemporary and historical including The Pull of the Stars), as well as drama for screen and stage. Room, was a New York Times Best Book of 2010 and a finalist for the Man Booker, Commonwealth, and Orange Prizes, selling between two and three million copies in forty languages. Donoghue was nominated for an Academy Award for her 2015 adaptation starring Brie Larson. She co-wrote the screenplay for the film of her novel The Wonder, starring Florence Pugh and distributed by Netflix.