DISCRETION

For fans of Downton Abbey and Upstairs, Downstairs, DISCRETION is an epic reversal of fortunes story following two women who switch identities on a train.

It all begins in 1890. Lady Ada and Evelyn are traveling by train toward Pittsburgh and two very different futures, one affluent, the other quite the opposite. Ada is reluctantly making a journey toward a marriage to a man she has never met (arranged by her once-respected British family); Evelyn is on her way to work as a domestic servant in one of the city's finer houses. This chance meeting and the envy it triggers when they impulsively switch identities, is the beginning of a recurring connection, weaving together their contrasting lives - from the drawing rooms of upper class Pittsburgh homes, to its factories and slums, and then over the border to the golden age of the grand hotels of Muskoka, the destination of a new and glamorous set of "pleasure seekers."

Winner of Canada's most prestigious short story prize, the Writers Trust/McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize, Miranda Hill's stories have appeared in the Globe & Mail, Reader's Digest, The New Quarterly among others. Her debut collection Sleeping Funny, (Doubleday, 2012), was one of the bestselling and well-reviewed collections of the year. Hill is the founder of the literary charity Project Bookmark Canada. DISCRETION is her debut novel.