The Apprentices

This is probably one of the best books I've ever read. Novels. It's very simple, from the speech to the layout, but it's dealt with so beautifully that even the macabre side isn't disturbing. Set in the sometimes-seamy underworld of the 18th century, it starts with an odd-job boy who becomes apprenticed to a lamplighter after doing the man a favour. Then, as the year goes by, it's woven in with the tales of eleven other apprentices. From the undertaker's daughter on Valentine's Day to the wig maker's assistant charming girls for their hair, there are tales of love, either lost or won, of misery, or just the joy of being alive. Like, when I like a book, it's hard to write about it lucidly, but please believe me -it's wonderful.