Conceit

Mary Novik's debut novel, Conceit (Doubleday 2007), is about Pegge Donne, the daughter of the Metaphysical poet John Donne, and is set in 17th century London. Other fictional characters based on historical people are Donne's wife Ann More, the diarist Samuel Pepys, and the fisherman Izaak Walton. Conceit has been praised for its "breathtaking ambition". It won the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize and was nominated for the Scotiabank Giller Prize. It was chosen as a Book of the Year by both The Globe and Mail and Quill & Quire. Canada Reads named Conceit one of the Top 40 Essential Canadian Novels…