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The wry, macabre, unforgettable tale of an ambitious orphan in Revolutionary Paris, befriended by royalty and radicals, who transforms herself into the legendary Madame Tussaud. In 1761, a tiny, odd-looking girl named Marie is born in a village in Switzerland. After the death of her parents, she is apprenticed to an eccentric wax sculptor and whisked off to the seamy streets of Paris, where they meet a domineering widow and her quiet, pale son. Together, they convert an abandoned monkey house into an exhibition hall for wax heads, and the spectacle becomes a sensation. As word of her artistic talent spreads, Marie is called to Versailles, where she tutors a princess and saves Marie Antoinette in childbirth. But outside the palace walls, Paris is roiling: The revolutionary mob is demanding heads, and . . . at the wax museum, heads are what they do.Exuberant and utterly distinctive, Little recalls a momentous stretch of French history through the eyes of Marie Groscholtz, who survives the harshest of beginnings and most violent of revolutions to craft her place in history. Little is a stunning artefact of a novel; a wonderfully grisly reimagining of the life and times of Madame Tussaud. Carey weaves a tale of heartfelt sympathy and jet-black humour; eccentric oddity and utter enchantment. Dickensian in style with an unforgettable cast of characters, Little is a masterpiece for modern times.