The Dressmaker

The Dressmaker will appeal to readers of other historical book group favorites, The Paris Wife and Loving Frank. —Book Group Buzz, A Booklist Blog

Thoroughly enjoyable. —The Book Reporter

The 1912 sinking of the Titanic is the stone at the center of a ripple expanding to encompass the rest of the world in this fictionalized account of real historical persons and events. It is a layered story highlighting class differences and the public and private personas people put on as easily as high-fashion dresses, illustrating both the tragedy’s individual torment as well as a larger wave of survivor’s guilt. Multiple points of view bring many perspectives to the witch-hunt atmosphere and courtroom drama of a shocked world looking for someone to blame. By setting the story mainly in New York City, Alcott contrasts Lady Duff Gordon’s lush, glittering world of high society with reporter Pinky Wade’s tenement squalor and seamstress Tess Collins’s ambition and longing for freedom. Tess, the fulcrum of a star-crossed love triangle with two fellow survivors, a twice-divorced wealthy American and a sailor with a talent for woodcarving, never loses her integrity as she struggles to make sense of everything. These small stories stand for hundreds of others whose voices were stolen by the tragedy as survivors faced the consequences of indiscretion and quick tongues. A low hum of background action–suffragettes and union tensions–mirrors the human costs in the disaster that besets the Titanic....will find much to think about in this story shaped by the inherent desire to know more about one of the most documented and researched tragedies in human history —Library Journal

We all know how the Titanic went down, we all saw the movie. But what happened after? This brilliant book shows the aftermath of the tragedy, seen through the eyes of a brave, young girl who was on board, on her way to America, to start a new life as a dressmaker. From the minute Tess sets foot on the doomed ship, this is the kind of novel you simply cannot put down and cannot forget. —Tatiana de Rosnay, author of Sarah's Key and A Secret Kept

Kate Alcott’s The Dressmaker is a beautifully told story that examines loss, love, couture and the choices we make when everything is on the line--all sewn together into one compelling read. I can’t stop thinking about this book and its characters. —Sarah Jio, author of The Violets of March and The Bungalow 

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We're all riveted by a tragedy, but what happens to the survivors?  THE DRESSMAKER is that rare novel that asks not only what comes next but what we would do in a morally unspeakable situation--and how we live with those choices.  A brave, truly gripping novel. —Jenna Blum, author of Those Who Save Us and The Stormchasers 

The Dressmaker achieves the remarkable -- it makes the sinking of the Titanic feel like a story never told before.  By focusing on the search for justice in the aftermath of the tragedy, this compelling first novel examines humanity at its best and worst, as seen through the eyes of one of the ship's survivors, a courageous young woman who is determined to make her own way in America. — Lauren Belfer, author of A Fierce Radiance and City of Light

This is a fascinating premise for a novel as well as a powerful, page-turning read.  It's also a very valuable contribution to our understanding of the events surrounding the sinking of the Titanic, and its aftermath. —Isabel Wolff, author of A Vintage Affair